MONASTIC INSTITUTIONS. 



©onafttc Jnflttutton* ; 



THEIR ORIGIN, PROGRESS, NATURE 
AND TENDENCY. 

BY SAMUEL PHILLIPS DAY, 

Formerly of the Order of the Prefentation, 




LONDON: 

LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN AND LONGMANS. 
I8 55 . 



TO 

THOMAS CHAMBERS, ESQ^ M.P. 
ETC. 

THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE 
INSCRIBED. 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter I. 

Page 

The Origin and Progrefs of Monafticifm . i 

Chapter II. 

Caufes of the rapid Increafe of Monafticifm — ■ 
Mode of Living, Vows, and Wealth of the 

early Monks . 9 

Chapter III. 

The " Confuetudinal " of Coenobites and 
Anchorites 31 

Chapter IV. 

Character of thofe who embraced the Monaftic 
Profeflion , 51 

Chapter V. 
Concife Hiftory of the Francifcan Order . . 79 



Vlll 



Contents. 



Chapter VI. 

Page 

Legendary Writings . 100 

Chapter VII. 

The Principal Monaftic Orders exifting in 
Great Britain and Ireland — The Vows and 

Internal Difcipline of the "Religious " . 124 

The Chriftian Brothers 138 

The Fathers of the Oratory . . . . 159 

The Society of Jefus 183 

Internal Difcipline of Religious Houfes 206 

Chapter VIII. 

The pernicious tendency of Monafticifm, 
viewed in a focial, moral, phyfical, and 
political afpect 221 

ERRATA. 

Page 58, note, for Ivo of Charles, Tead, Ivo of Chartres. 
" 83, line 22, for their code, " its code. 
" 91, 44 19, 44 their immediate wants, read, im- 
mediate wants. 
44 94, line 23, for becoming, read, became, 
44 141 , 44 22 , 44 temporarily, 44 temporary. 
44 205, 44 3, 44 have, 44 has. 

44 223, 44 12, 44 to that 44 J rem that. 

44 227, 44 18, 44 there production, 44 the reproduction. 



mi 

T'.r- a. 




PREFACE. 



HE leaft faid the fooneft 
mended/' is an apophthegm^ 
the applicability of whichis 



not at all out of place in the prefent 
inftance. Prefaces., generally fpeaking 3 
fo far from being ornamental are rather 
detrimental to a book ; fometimes^ like 
dodtors' phyfic, they are " neceffary 
evils ; " but in nine cafes out of ten 
they had much better be difpenfed 
with altogether ; for even fhould the 
book itfelf happen to be lucid, like men 



x Preface. 

with diamonds writing on glafs, they 
obfcure light with fcratches. However, 
following the example of moralifts, we 
depart (in our cafe unwillingly) from 
the very excellent principle which we 
recommend to others ; and venture to 
fay a few words to the reader. 

As brevity is not only Cf the foul of 
wit," but in this particular cafe, a mat- 
ter of duty, I fhall abide by that rule, 
and not needlefsly occupy the time and 
attention of thofe who may better and 
more profitably difpofe of both one and 
the other. 

My principal objed in writing this 
book has been to meet what I conceive 
to be a defideratum, by furnilhing a 
faithful, impartial, and unfe£tarian y how- 
ever imperfect, view of the monaftic 
fyftem of ancient and modern times. 



.Preface. xi 

Works of this defcription too often are 
either not fit to be placed in the hands 
of female readers, or elfe are highly 
exaggerated and prejudiced, and con- 
fequently mar the purpofe they were 
defigned to ferve. I have carefully en- 
deavoured, cc to the end of the chapter," 
to abftain from the leaft appearance of 
acrimony or invedtive which the difcuf- 
fion of fuch an exciting topic was cal- 
culated to provoke ; and have avoided 
as much as poflible the theological, or 
rather polemical examination of the fub- 
jeft ; fimply and fairly treating it as a 
rational and philofophical queftion, to 
my mind the mo ft interesting and in- 
ftruftive light in which it could poffibly 
be regarded — always bearing in mind 
that cc to fupprefs the truth may now and 
then be our duty to others ; whilft not 



xii Preface. 

to utter a falfehood muft always be our 
duty to ourfelves."^ 

Having attempted to give a con- 
denfed view of Monaftic Inftitutions, I 
truft that the brevity I have found 
needful to adopt does not neceflarily 
involve obfcurity ; for I fhould very 
much regret were the proverb in the re- 
moteft degree applicable to me, "Brevis 
ejfe laloro y obfcurus fio" The fize of 
the book precluded a more enlarged 
view of the interefting fubjedt which 
has occupied my pen, and I was un- 
willing to fwell the volume to a larger 
extent, however valuable the materiel 
at my difpofal. My chief objed has 
been to diredt public attention to fads, 
not fo much as to multiply cafes, illuf- 



Guefles at Truth. 



Preface. xiii 

trative of the monaftic fyftem. The 
end will be attained if the few pages of 
this unaffuming book fhould induce the 
reader to regard the fame in its proper 
light, and to examine more thought- 
fully, attentively, and minutely, its en- 
tire ramifications and the effe&s which 
it is calculated to produce in the world 
no lefs than in the cloifter. There are, 
no doubt, defedfcs of compofition, for 
which I muft throw myfelf on the in- 
dulgence of the reader. 

As to the numerous authorities 
brought forward in fupport of the 
pofitions I have laid down, I can truly 
fay, that they have not been quoted, 
without a ftri<5t attention to the very 
words of the feveral authors to whom 
reference is made. I would further add, 
that in an attempt to draw a pi&ure of 



xiv Preface. 

the abufes which have, age after age, 
crept into the monaftic fyftem, until it 
became an unfightly mafs of deformity, 
I have cautioufly avoided fetting down 
aught in malice, or magnifying errors 
and abominations, in themfelves fuffi- 
ciently grofs without any additional 
colouring. 

I now ftand at the bar of public 
opinion ; and while I anticipate the 
candid and impartial judgment of thofe 
whofe opinion is worthy of refped, I am 
at the fame time prepared to encounter 
fevere and cauftic criticifm at the hands 
of fome who have not the judgment or 
juftice to difcriminate, nor the humanity 
nor charity to diftinguifli, between the 
rabidnefs of fedlarianifm on the one 
hand, and the moderation of an unpre- 
judiced Author on the other, when 



Preface. 



xv 



Monafcic Inftitutions form the theme 
upon which he difcourfes. — cc By a bien 
quelque chqfe la dedans que je ne com- 
prends pas" 

London : 
May, 1855. 



^onafttc 3!nftttutton0. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Origin and Progrefs of Monajiicifm. . 

" Rude ideas, barbarous fociety, Egyptian fuperftition, and 
the Roman Catholic Religion, folve all the errors of mo- 
nachifm." — T. D. Fosbrooke. 



HEN we trace Monachifm to 
its fource, we di (cover that it 
originated with the early con- 
verts to chriftianity who, pow- 
erfully inftigated by fanaticifm, as well as 
influenced by the dread of perfecution, aban- 
doned their ordinary avocations, and betook 
themfelves for fafety and retirement to the 
mountains, the folitary deferts, and even the 
gloomy caverns of the earth. 

During the fevere and protradted perfec- 
tions which followed the edi£ts of the em- 

B 




2 Monajiic Injlitutions. 

peror Diocletian, doubtlefs many individuals, 
of both fexes, embraced with avidity the 
afcetic life, in order to efcape from the dire 
calamities which threatened to overwhelm 
them. Hence, the barren wildernefs afforded 
a refuge, where the darts of the enemy could 
not penetrate, and a haven, where the Itorms 
of adverfity could not reach. 

Egypt, within whofe prolific womb fuper- 
ftition had been conceived, and upon whofe 
breafts it was nourifhed and matured, affords 
the firft example of ftrict monaftic life, in 
the celebrated hermit, Anthony, who was 
born at Coba, on the borders of Arcadia, 
a. d. 251. This extraordinary enthufiaft 
deferted the fpot of his nativity, and at firft 
fought a habitation within the ruins of a tower. 
Subfequently he dwelt among the tombs, 
where he is faid to have performed rigorous 
penances and mortifications. Having, how- 
ever, travelled into the defert a few days' 
journey eaftward of the Nile, and difcovering 
in that locality a fpot poffefling a wildnefs of 
fcenery peculiarly adapted to his romantic 
taftes, and convenient to a fpring of water — 
a confideration of no flight import — he fixed 
his final habitation upon Mount Colzim, ad- 
jacent to the Red Sea, a.d. 305, where he 



Their Origin and Progrefs. 3 

collected an aflbciated community,* and 
where it is faid, by the Jefuit Sicard,f an 
ancient monaftery ftill retains his name. 

One of Anthony's fayings was, that " He 
who abideth in folitude is delivered from the 
threefold warfare of hearing, fpeaking and 
feeing, and has only to fupport the combat 
againft his own heart. 5 ' His actual experi- 
ence neverthelefs entirely negatives this afTer- 
tion ; for fo difficult, nay, impoffible did he 
find it to fuftain fuch a combat, that in an 
hour of trial and diftrefs he cried to the Lord, 
afking how he fliould be faved ? " Pre- 
fently/' fays the legend, " he faw one in the 
likenefs of himfelf, who fat at work, and anon 
rofe from his work and prayed, and then fat 
down again to twift a rope of the fibres of 
the palm, and after a while, rofe and prayed 
again. It was the angel of the Lord. c Do 
this,' faid the angel, c and thou fhalt be 
faved."' 

Although it has been affirmed and believed 
by the ancients, as well as the moderns, that 
Anthony was groffly ignorant, yet the hifto- 
rian Tillemont confiders this ftatement to be 
unfounded, and defcribes him as being ac- 

* MofheinVs Eccles. Hift. vol. i. p. 281. . (Soames.) 
t Millions in the Levant. 



4 Monajlic Injiitutions. 

quainted with reading and writing in the 
Coptic, his native tongue, and only ignorant 
as refpec~ts his knowledge of the Greek. 
Even the philofopher Synifius eulogifes the 
natural genius of Anthony, and afferts " that 
he did not require the aid of learning." 

Upon this bleak and ifolated mountain 
Anthony did not exift unknown, although 
apparently debarred from all human inter- 
courfe and interefts. Nor was he without 
followers and admirers. Numberlefs indi- 
viduals, whom natural curiofity alone had 
drawn to the fpot, were ultimately induced 
to make trial of his novel mode of life ; and 
having once embraced it, they foon experi- 
enced a difrelifh for fociety, and remained in 
folitude until they had loft all appetite or apt- 
itude for focial life. Thus monachifm, like 
many other great inftitutions, may clearly be 
traced to accidental circumftances. On the 
Mount of Colzim the firft feeds of monachifm 
were fown ; they quickly germinated ; and 
their rapid and furprifing growth muft afton- 
ifh every rational and intelligent mind. The 
rocks of Thebais, the fands of Libya, the 
cities of the Nile, and the mountains and 
defert of Nitria, were, in an incredibly fhort 
time, thickly peopled by feveral thoufand 



Their Origin and Progrefs. 5 

anchorites ; and travellers have obferved the 
ruins of fifty monafteries which were eftab- 
lifhed in thefe places by Anthony and his 
difciples. The Jefuit Sicard vifited this de- 
fert, and difcovered there four monaftic eftab- 
limments, and about twenty or thirty monks. 
Anthony's difciples finally difperfed them- 
felves over the Ethiopian empire. 

There is a curious circumftance related of 
one Amnion, who perfuaded his wife to re- 
nounce with him a fecular life. They ac- 
cordingly retired to the mountain of Nitria, 
and for a time inhabited together one com- 
mon afcetic apartment. This not being 
pleafing, however, to the chafte bride, me 
manifefted fome uneafinefs thereat, and one 
day addreffed her hulband thus : — " It is un- 
fuitable for you, who profefs chaftity, to look 
upon a woman in fo confined a dwelling ; 
let us, therefore, if it is agreeable to you, 
perform our exercife apart." The concur- 
rence of Ammon was obtained, and each 
party pafied the remainder of their lives in 
folitude and abilinence ; partaking neither of 
wine or oil, eating dry bread alone, and oc- 
cafionally refraining from food for feveral 
days together. At one time Ammon re- 
quired to crofs a river, but being fo fqueam- 



6 Monaftic Inftitutions . 

ifhly modeft as not to undrefs, he befought 
the Lord to enable him to get over without 
being neceffitated to break his refolution. 
Immediately, it is faid, an angel tranfported 
him to the oppofite fide ! # 

The ifland of Tabenne, in the Nile, fituated 
between the modern town of Girge and the 
ruins of ancient Thebes, was inhabited by 
Pachomius, and about fourteen hundred of 
his difciples. This devotee, in order that he 
might fleep little, and with the leaft poffible 
comfort or convenience, never once fuffered 
himfelf to lie down, or to recline againft any- 
thing which might afford his body fupport,but 
fat upon a ftone in the centre of his cell. And 
among the rules which, according to monkifh 
biographers, were given to him by an angel, 
and became the firft code of monaftic laws, 
was one whereby the members of that order 
were enjoined to fleep in a fitting and not in 
a recumbent pofition. This renowned abbot 
founded nine monafteries for men, and, cruel 
to relate, one for women ! Frequently on 
feftival days would be congregated together 
as many as fifty thoufand individuals who 
adopted his Angularly auftere and rigid rule 
of difcipline. 



* Socrates' Eccles. Hift. lib. 4, c. xxiii. 



Their Origin and Progrefs. 7 

Impelled both by the example of Anthony 
and his own innate love for folitude, Hilarion, 
a Syrian youth, eftablifhed monachifm in 
Paleftine, a.d. 328, and took up his abode 
upon a fandy beach, a few miles diftant from 
Gaza. Soon did the fame of this man be- 
come commenfurate with, if it did not pofi- 
tively furpafs, that of Anthony : for, when on 
his occafional vifitation of the feveral monaf- 
teries in Paleftine, he was invariably accom- 
panied by a vaft proceffion, comprifing no 
lefs than two or three thoufand anchorites. 
This founder profecuted a courfe of fevere 
difcipline during a period of forty-eight years. 

In Rome, monachifm was firft introduced 
and propagated by Athanafius, a. d. 341, and 
a few Egyptian monks, whofe revolting and 
horrifying afpect created, for a time, con- 
tempt and ridicule. Strange to fay, however, 
thefe feelings ultimately fubfided, and gave 
place to emulation and efteem. 

The celebrated and ambitious Bafil eftab- 
lifhed a monaftery in Pontus, A. D. 366, in 
a dreary folitude, where he governed for a 
time his followers, who were difperfed along 
the coaft of the Black Sea. 

Martin of Tours, who united in himfelf 
rather the conflicting offices of a warrior and 



8 Monajitc Injlitutions . 

chriftian bifhop, founded feveral monaftic 
focieties in Gaul, a.d. 370. His difciples 
numbered feveral thoufands; many of whom 
chofe for their place of exile the bleak and 
rugged iflands which lie ftudded over the 
Tufcan Sea. 

The monks belonging to the famous mo- 
naftery of Bangor, founded by one Congal, 
a. d. 530, who were three thoufand in num- 
ber, difperfed themfelves over Ireland, Gaul, 
Germany, Switzerland, and the whole north- 
ern regions.* Thus we behold a fyftem 
hateful in the fight of God, in rude contra- 
diction to the principles of Nature, revolting 
to the focial feelings and inimical to the 
happinefs of mankind, fpreading itfelf over 
the earth, and in its flight carrying ruin and 
defolation in its unfightly train. 



* Mofheim's Eccles. Hift. vol. ii. p. 21. (Soames.) 



CHAPTER II. 



Caufes of the rapid Increafe of Monafticifm — 
Mode of Living, Vows, and Wealth of 
the early Monks. 

" Fanaticifm will ever have fuccefs. It treats upon a 
fubjedt where there is a general feeling and intereft ; and 
acts by operating upon Paffion, which is always contagious 
and intelligible ; becaufe the fenfations of all mankind are 
fimilar, though their underftandings may differ." — Preface 
to Britijb Monacbifm. 

HE caufes which have operated 
in producing the rapid fpread of 
monachifm, may clearly be 
traced to a threefold fource : 
namely, fanaticifm, example, and finifter 
ends. Almoft all religious fe£ts have begun 
among the illiterate and common people. 
From this clafs chiefly have been drawn 
their earlieft as well as moft numerous pro- 
felytes. u The auftere fyftem of morality," 
fays Adam Smith, " has been adopted by 




io Monajlic Injlitutions . 

thefe feels almoft conftantly, or with very 
few exceptions, for there have been fome. 
It was the fyftem by which they could beft 
recommend themfelves to that order of peo- 
ple, to whom they firft propofed their plan of 
reformation, upon what had been before 
eftabliflied. Many, perhaps the greater part 
of them, have even endeavoured to gain 
credit, by refining upon this auftere fyftem, 
and by carrying it to fome degree of folly 
and extravagance ; and this exceflive rigour 
has frequently recommended them, more 
than anything elfe, to the refpect and vene- 
ration of the common people." * Whenever 
reafon remains uncultivated, a paflion for the 
marvellous obtains amongft a people ; and 
fanaticifm readily affumes any, even the moft 
grotefque fliape. The hiftory of religions 
but too truly and painfully teftifies this. 
Now, in the earlier middle age, when chrif- 
tianity itfelf was very confiderably extended 
by means of the fword and by the reception 
of baptifm exempting prifoners of war from 
flavery or death ;f in fuch an age, furely, pure 
reafon would have been quite unavailing. 



* Wealth of Nations, iii. p. 202. 

f Solorzanus de Indiarum Jure, lib. ii. ch. xvi. p. 263. 



Caufes of Increafe, etc. \ i 

A noble mind is not even proof againft the 
fpirit of fanaticifm, when once it fucceeds in 
infinuating itfelf into it. The vital principles 
of virtue and truth become inevitably cor- 
roded thereby. Nor are we to be greatly 
furprifed at the fanaticifm of the pall, when 
we know that even pious frauds continued 
to the days of Fox, the hiftorian, who pub- 
liihed in his u Book of Martyrs," the barba- 
rous murder of individuals who were known 
to have lived long after. 

The manner in which example operated 
upon the uncultivated minds of the multitude 
may readily be conceived, when we confider 
the furprifing popularity which the firft 
founders and promulgators of this new fyltern 
had attained. The fpread of their apparently 
extraordinary miracles, and fuccefsful com- 
batings with evil fpirits, mull have had a 
powerful tendency to induce perfons, in the 
flightelt degree credulous, to embrace a Hate, 
to all human appearance, fo fpecially and 
fignally ftamped with the feal of Heaven. 
Further, each profelyte was taught that plea- 
fure was deltru&ion ; that mortification was 
the fole means of acquiring the Divine favour, 
and avoiding temporal misfortunes ; * and 



* Anglia Sacr. i. 797. 



12 Monajiic Inflitutions . 

that a world voluntarily renounced, was the 
fpiritual ladder by means of which they were 
to afcend to the gates of Zion. The elo- 
quent Chryfoftom, bifhop of Conftantinople, 
who had himfelf exchanged the monaftic 
habit for the epifcopal crown, encouraged 
the monks to believe that they were the 
" ele£t and that the monaftic cell was a 
type of the ark, " out of which falvation was 
impoffible." He even dedicated no lefs than 
three books in eulogy of the monaftic life \ 
but ultimately he received a poor reward for 
his ill-beftowed panegyrics. Thofe very in- 
dividuals, upon whom he lavifhed fuch undue 
praifes, became his moft bitter and adverfe 
enemies, and were the fpecial inftruments in 
procuring his perpetual baniftiment to Cu- 
cufus, a city of Cilicia, where he died about 
three years afterwards** Thus was Chry- 
foftom rewarded for his adulatory epiftles, 
by the black-garbled monks of Cappadocia. 

Sinifter ends and perfonal motives likewife 
were not without their effefts in peopling 
the inhabitable deferts and barren wilds with 
multitudes of people ; for hither, as to a com- 
mon afylum, men broken in mind, in fortune, 



* Moiheim's Eccles. Hift. vol. i. p. 470. (Soames.) 



Caufes of Increafe, etc. 13 

and in fame, betook themfelves ; the friend- 
lefs, the difappointed, the criminal who fled 
from public juftice, and the innocent who 
fought flielter from oppreffion.* Vanity, the 
fpirit of emulation, accidental misfortune, 
and even ambition, a£ted as ftrong incentives 
to the monaftic ftate. Indeed, inftances 
are recorded of the emaciated and auftere 
monk being fuddenly endowed with the high- 
er!: civil authority, as well as elevated to the 
epifcopal chair ; and it is notorious that the 
monafteries of the eaft, of Egypt, and of 
Gaul, fupplied numerous candidates for thefe 
dignified offices, f Nothing can well afford 
fuch a ftriking and remarkable proof of the 
exceflive and fanatical veneration that was 
paid to the monaftic order, as the treatment 
they received from feveral kings and em- 
perors, who drew numbers of monks and 
abbots from their cloifters, and placed them 
in ftations entirely foreign to their vows and 
their character ; even amidft the fplendour 
of a court, and at the head of affairs. The 



* Platina has termed the monaftic life, " Unicum cala- 
mitoforum refugium." 

f Sulpitius Severus, De Vita Martini, cap. x. p. 320, 
Dial. i. cap. xxi. p. 426. 



1 4 Monajlic Injtitutions. 

transition, indeed, was violent, from the ob- 
fcurity of a convent, and the ftudy of a 
liturgy, to fit at the helm of an empire and 
manage the political interefts of nations.* 
Hence, it may fafely be affirmed, that finifter 
views and interefted motives gave a fweetnefs 
to mortification, an agreeablenefs to folitude, 
and an intrepidity to the mind, diverted of 
which influences, many of thofe unhappy 
beings would, in all probability, have yielded 
to defpair, and put a termination to an exift- 
ence at beft but a living death. Several fled 
to monaftic retreats whofe circumftances 
became embarrafled by oppreffion; and a 
vaft number of individuals, whom the horrors 
of war had intimidated, found a molt defirable 
refuge in thefe afylums. They were content 
to endure privations painful to flem and blood, 
which the fear of periming by ruthlefs bar- 
barians could alone have alleviated or ren- 
dered fupportable. 

The cells or dwellings of the monks were 
originally low and narrow, — unlike the fine 
fpacious apartments of our modern reclufe, — 
and built of flight materials : while the more 
devoted of their occupants, in order to in- 



* Mofheim's Eccles. Hift. vol. ii. p. 201. (Soames.) 



I 



Caufes of Increafe, etc. 15 

creafe their fufferings, would not afford them- 
felves fpace fufficient to ftand ere£t, or to 
extend their bodies, thinking it a meritorious 
duty to pafs their days and nights in a fitting 
pofture. 

The Egyptian monks generally carried 
their abftemioufhefs to a very great extent. 
Anthony, Pachomius, and their difciples, 
would take no more than twelve ounces of 
bread, or bifcuit, for their daily fuftenance, 
which limited quantity was divided into two 
meals. Mecarius, of Alexandria, partook 
of no food during Lent but herbs, and then 
only once a week. This faintly fanatic hav- 
ing one day killed a gnat which had bitten 
him, was fo ftruck with compunction at the 
fight of the infe£t's blood that, by way of 
atonement, he retired into the marines, where, 
for fix months, he voluntarily expofed him- 
felf to all winged and creeping infedts, until 
every part of his fiefh became literally fwollen 
and ulcerated from their bites ! Sozomen re- 
lates of him, that he had fo hardened his body 
by aufterities, that the very beard could not 
penetrate through his fkin. This perfonage, 
when in the full odour of filth and rags, re- 
turned one day to his convent, humbled and 
mortified by the fenfe of his own inferiority, 



1 6 Monajiic Injiitutions. 

exclaiming, " I am not yet a monk, but I 
have feen monks" — for he had pofitively 
fallen in with two of thefe wretches Jiark 
naked!* In Pontus, as Gregory of Nazianzus 
teftifies, fome devotees failed twenty days 
and nights together. Paul, the firft hermit, 
is faid to have lived upon the fruit of a palm- 
tree, and a piece of bread fupplied to him 
daily by a raven; which quantity this confi- 
derate creature doubled on one occafion when 
Anthony vifited him. The caufe of An- 
thony's vifit to Paul is rather remarkable : 
fancying himfelf to be the moft rigid and re- 
tired of all monks, Anthony became exceed- 
ingly humbled upon being told in a dream 
that there exifted a better even than he, who 
refided farther in the wildernefs. Accord- 
ingly, Anthony fets out on a voyage of dis- 
covery and goes in fearch of Paul's habita- 
tion, which was contiguous to fome ruins 
that had been, as the legend ftates, the mint 
of Egypt during the time of Antony and 
Cleopatra. Meeting no other perfons on the 
way than a fatyr and a centaur, he arrived at 
the cave and faw an hyena go in. Paul 



* Peregrinatorium Religiofum, by T. D. Fofbrooke, 
A.M., F. A.S. 



Caufes of Increafe, etc. 17 

hearing a human footftep clofed the portal ; 
but Anthony entreated that the holy man, 
who had allowed a beaft to enter, would not 
exclude a brother. Overcome by fome half- 
dozen hours' perfeverance on the part of his 
vifitor, the hermit removed the ftone and 
afked Anthony, why it was that he had taken 
fo much trouble to fee a poor decayed old 
man, who would fpeedily return to duft ? The 
next queftion was a natural one — how the 
affairs of the world were going on ? Narra 
mihi qucefo, quomodo fe habeat hominum genus? 
An in antiquis urbibus nova te£fa confurgant ? 
quo mundus regatur imperio ? an fuperjint 
allqui qui damonum err ore rapiantur ? How- 
ever, Anthony is fent back to fetch a cloak 
which Athanafius had given him, and in 
which his new friend defires to be buried. 
On his return to the cave, he is apprifed of 
Paul's death by feeing his foul afcend to 
glory : he finds the deceafed hermit on his 
knees, his body erect, his hands, head, and 
eyes upraifed in the attitude of prayer, and 
two lions attending as grave-diggers. An- 
thony buried him in the cave ; from whence 
his remains were tranflated, firft to Conftan- 
tinople, fecondly to Venice, and finally to 
Buda, where La Brocquiere faw it in a (rate of 
c 



1 8 Monajiic Injiitutions. 



perfecl prefervation four hundred years ago !* 
The ufe of vegetables, cheefe, fruit, or fifh, 
was rarely indulged in by the oriental monks ; 
but on particular occafions, their abbots mi- 
tigated the extreme aufterity of the rules, by 
allowing them the ufe of the fmall fifh of the 
Nile ; a luxury which was had at the banquet 
to which Caflian was invited by Serenus, an 
Egyptian abbot. 

Befides the devotees already alluded to, 
mention is made of St. Hilary having fub- 
fifted upon fifteen figs a-day for a number of 
years. And more modern accounts affirm 
that St. Genovefa, of Paris, lived thirty-five 
years upon a fmall quantity of barley-bread 
daily — that St. Catherine, of Cardonna, in 
Spain, a nun of the Carmelite order, exifted 
folely upon grafs ! while others, even in our 
own country, are faid to have fuftained life by 
partaking daily of the " wafer" — a pretty de- 
monftrable proof of the " real prefence" of 
fomething more fubftantial than the mere 
fcholaftic accidents of bread remaining after 
the " Hoc eft corpus meum" of the prieftly 
functionary, f 



* Pereg. Relig. &c. &c. 

f Luther relates that when at Rome he found priefts in 



Caufes of Increaje y etc. 19 

Among the Weftern monks, the rules of 
Columbanus were the moft fevere, being 
nearly as rigorous as thofe of their brethren 
in the Eaft. In Seville, the monaftic confti- 
tutions of Ifidore were very lenient, and per- 
mitted the ufe of fleih-meat oecafionally. So 
great, however, did the relaxation in monaftic 
difcipline become, that the famous founder 
of the Benedi&ines was finally compelled to 
allow a Roman meafure of wine, called hem- 
ina (equal to half-a-pint), daily to the monks ;* 

the confecration of the wafer, while telling the people that 
they were creating God, ufing the words, " Tu es panis, et 
panis manebis." " Thou art bread, and bread thou fhalt re- 
main !" — D^Aubigne's Hijl. Reform. 

In the preface to Archbifhop Wake's Difcourfe of the 
Holy Eucharift, it is related that Archbifliop Ufher, who had 
converted by his agency fome Romifli priefts, once inquired 
of them, What they who faid mafs daily, and were not ob- 
liged to confefs venial fins, could have to trouble confeflbrs 
with ? They ingenuoufly acknowledged that the chief part 
of their conftant confeflion was their own infidelity as to the 
tenet of Tranfubftantiation : for which they mutually quitted 
and abfolved one another. 

* " Every one," faith St. Benedict, " hath his proper gift 
from God, one thus, and another thus, and therefore we ap- 
point the meafure of other men's food not without fome 
fcrupulofity. Yet, confidering the imbecility of the infirm, 
we think a hemina of wine daily will fuffice for each. And if 
either labour, heat of fummer, or the fituation of the place, 
require more, let the prior do what he thinketh good, hav- 



20 Monajiic Institutions. 

and thofe of his difciples who croffed the 
Alps, the Rhine, and the Baltic, required a 
ftill ftronger beverage, and in more ample 
quantity. It is true that Pachomius ulti- 
mately extended the dietary of the monks ; 
but, as a quid pro quo^ he made them work 
in proportion. 

Monaftics were very tenacious of keeping 
inviolable their vows of evangelical poverty 
and obedience. The former appeared moft 
prominently in their exterior ; for their habit 
or tunic, which was worn as an outfide 
covering, confifted of the coarfeft and cheap- 
er!: material ; and except in the Eaft, where 
the article was far from expenfive, they never 
indulged in the luxury of linen. Not un- 
frequently even did the Ikins of beafts con- 
ftitute their only attire. By their vow of 
obedience they impofed upon themfelves the 
fhackles of perpetual vafTalage and the vileft 
fervitude. Accordingly, they yielded readily 
and blindly to the moft capricious dictates of 



ing ever a care that fuperfuity or drunkennefs creep not in. 
And although we read wine to be in no fort the drink of 
monks, yet, becaufe in thefe times they will not be Jo perfuaded, 
let us at leaft confent to this ; that we drink not to fatiety, 
but fparingly." — Trans, of the Rules of St. BenediB, by C. F., 
Prieftofthe Order, edit. Douay, 1 638. 



Caufes of Increafe, etc. 21 

thofe whom they were bound to obey, no 
matter how impracticable or prepofterous. 

As anilluftrationof the pun£tilioufnefs with 
which the vow of poverty was regarded, I 
mall relate a ftory w r hich St. Gregory men- 
tions as having occurred in his own monas- 
tery : — A monk of the name of Julius had 
amafTed a large fum of money, amounting to 
three crowns^ for his own ufe. Ultimately his 
fin was difcovered. However, by the lingular 
induftryof Gregory, he was brought to repent 
of his cupidity on his death-bed. As an ex- 
ample to others, the faint ordered the poor 
monk's body and his money to be buried 
together in a dunghill, and forbade prayers to 
be read for his foul. At length Gregory re- 
pented of his harm treatment to his poor de- 
ceafed brother ! and calling Pretorius, the 
prior of the convent, defired him to fay 
mafles for Julius for thirty days in fucceffion. 
When this time had tranfpired, the dead man 
appeared to brother Copiofus, and told him, 
that he had indeed been in a very bad ftate, 
but he was then quite well, as he had that 
day received the communion ! 

Nor were thefe wretched beings exempted 
from more rigid difcipline and additional pen- 
ances. The mo ft trivial fault, or imperfec- 



22 Monajlic Injiitutions. 

tion, was punifhed with extreme rigour and 
feverity ; rendering the offender fubject to 
long fallings, and watchings, folitary confine- 
ment, and perhaps flagellation. In the Weft, 
the rules of Columbanus, which are faid to 
have furpaffed all others in fimplicity and 
brevity, inflicted no lefs than one hundred 
lafhes for faults of a character fo trivial, that 
they could not be mentioned without exciting 
the rifibility of the reader !* But there were 
cruelties more abhorrent and diabolical than 
thefe practifed by abbots ; fuch as mutilating 
their monks, and putting out their eyes ; and 
an inftance is recorded of an abbefs cutting 
the nofe ofF each nun in her convent with a 
razor !f However barbarous thefe a£ts may 
appear, the inhuman vade in pace, or fubter- 
ranean dungeon, more recently invented, far 
exceeded all other inftruments of torture. 

Sometimes, however, felf-mutilation was 
adopted, as in the cafe of Ammonius, who 
travelled to Rome with Athanafius, and who, 
when about to be elevated to the epifcopate, 
voluntarily cut off his right ear, in order that 



* Jac. Ufferii Sylloge. Antiquar. Epiftolar. Hibernicar. 
Holftenii Codex Regularum, torn. ii. 

f Vide Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints. 



Caufes of Increafe, etc. 23 

he might thereby difqualify himfelf for ordi- 
nation. Evagrius, whomTheophilus, bifliop 
of Alexandria, wiflied to force the prelacy 
upon, having effected his efcape without in 
anyway maiming himfelf, afterwards chanced 
to meet Ammonius and jocofely obferved, 
that he had done wrong in cutting off his ear, 
and confequently had rendered himfelf cri- 
minal in the fight of God : to whom Am- 
monius replied: — " But do you think, Eva- 
grius, that you will efcape unpunimed, who, 
from felf-love, have cut out your own tongue, 
to avoid the exercife of that gift of utterance 
which has been committed to you ? " * 

Not only was flagellation frequently re- 
forted to by the members of monaftic cor- 
porations, but a new order was originated in 
Italy, a.d. 1263, and called by the name of 
" Flagellant," adopting this corporeal difci- 
pline as a primary part of its code; which 
order finally fpread over Europe. So turbu- 
lent and revolting, however, did it become, 
that emperors and pontiffs who once revered 
it for its fanctity, had to iflue decrees for its 
fuppreflion.f But this barbarous and brutal 



* Socrates' Eccles. Hift. lib. iv. chap. 24. 

f Molheim's Eccles. Hift. vol. ii. p. 598. (Soames.) 



24 Monajlic Injiitutions. 

practice was not ftrictly confined to clois- 
tered walls, nor folely adminiftered to fuch as 
had, by virtue of their vows, buried themfelves 
within them. The laity fometimes were 
fuffered to indulge their tafte for this peculiar 
kind of ecclefiaftical difcipline. At other 
times they were the very unwilling victims 
of the Church's Severity. Even flogging by 
proxy was not altogether a thing unknown 
at no very diftant period, when crowned 
heads had to Submit to fuch a grofs indignity.* 
The practice of flagellation by proxy feems 
to have originated in conjugal affection. 
A woman who had gone to make her con- 
feflion was followed to the church by her 
hufband who, fortunately for the wife, en- 
tertained doubts as to her fidelity. He 
fecreted himfelf for a time ; when, happening 
to obferve his fpoufe led by the confeflbr 
behind the altar in order to be flagellated, 
he at once made his appearance ; objected 
that me was too tender to bear the punilh- 
ment, and offered to receive it in her ftead. 
This propofal the wife greatly applauded ; 

* The Englifh Tranflator of the Abbe Boileu's " Hiftory 
of the Flagellants," quotes from Cardinal D'Oflat's letters 
an account of the flogging by proxy of Henry IV. of France, 
when he was abfolved from herefy. 



Caufes of Increafe, etc. 25 

and the man had no fooner placed himfelf on 
his knees, than fhe exclaimed : " Now, my 
father, lay on ftoutly, for I am a great fin- 
ner !"* 

Manual labour was at firft obligatory upon 
all who embraced a monaftic profeflion, and 
was regarded both in the light of a penance, 
and as a neceffary duty. The garden and 
fields, therefore, were cultivated with diligent 
care. In Egypt, the monks principally oc- 
cupied themfelves by making fandals of wood, 
and baikets and mats of the palm-tree leaves; 
the intrinfic value of which being greatly 
enhanced by the fan6limonious character of 
the workmen, they were fold at a pretty 
profitable rate in Alexandria, to which city 
boats defcended from the feveral monafteries 
of Tabenne and Thebais. 

At length, manual labour became partly 
or altogether difpenfed with, in proportion 
as the wealth of the monafteries increafed. 
The infatuated novice was obliged to deliver 
up all his earthly poffeffions into the hands 
of the abbot, ere he could be confidered as 
having perfectly renounced the world he had 
left. Others contributed plate, money, and 



* M. Scott. Menfa Philofophica, iv. 18. 



26 Monajiic Injlituttons. 

valuable articles, to a large amount, with the 
view of obtaining the prayers, or a partici- 
pation in the penances, of thofe who, in their 
eftimation, were eminently fanctified fervants 
of God.* All fuch as refpe£ted the common 
rules of decency, or preferved in their external 
demeanour the leaft appearance of piety and 
virtue, were looked upon as faints of the 
higheft rank, and confidered as the peculiar 
favourites of heaven. This circumftance 
was, no doubt, favourable to many of the 
monks, who were lefs profligate than the reft 
of their order, and might contribute more or 
lefs to fupport the whole body. Befides, it 
often happened that princes, dukes, knights, 
and generals, whofe days had been confumed 
in debauchery and crimes, and diftinguifhed 
by nothing but the violent exploits of unbri- 
dled luft, cruelty, and avarice, felt, at the 
approach of old age, or death, the inexpref- 
fible anguim of a wounded confcience, and 
the gloomy apprehenfions and terrors it ex- 
cites. In this dreadful condition what was 
their refource ? What were the means by 



* ie Whoever will enrich monks ihall caufe his progeny to 
profper both in this world and the next." — DunJ}, Concord, 
Regul. Proem. Spicil. Eadm. 156. 



Caufes of Increafe, etc. 27 

which they hoped to difarm the uplifted hand 
of Divine juftice, and render the Governor of 
the world propitious ? They purchafed, at 
an enormous price, the prayers of the monks, 
to fcreen them from judgment, and devoted 
to God and to the faints, a large portion of 
the fruits of their rapine, or entered them- 
felves into the monaftic order, and bequeath- 
ed their poffeffions to their new brethren. 
And thus it was that monkery received per- 
petually new acceffions of opulence and 
credit.* 

From thefe and numerous other caufes, 
wealth increafed in all monafteries of any 
notoriety, more efpecially in thofe of the Eaft, 
and among the famous order of Benedi£tines. 
And with its increafe degeneracy grew pro- 
portionate, f Hence, we find that thofe who 
forfook the world with apparent contempt, 
were, in reality, its moft attached and fondeft 
votaries ; being " lovers of pleafure more 
than lovers of God." We can form fome 
idea of the extent of monkifh perverfenefs 
from the fadts, that Pius VII. iffued a bull, 
reftri£ting monks from appearing in play- 



* Eccles. Hift. vol. ii. p. 354-5. (Soames.) 
f Simon, Biblioth. Critique, torn, iii. cap. xxxii. 



28 Monafkic Injiitutions. 

houfes with the habits of their order ! and 
that Charlemagne had in vain attempted, by 
repeated and fevere edicts, to put a flop to 
the growing evils which refulted from their 
licentioufnefs and enormities.* 

Refpecting St. Benedict, founder of the 
order which bears his name, it may be ob- 
ferved that his life has been written by no 
lefs a perfonage than Pope Gregory the 
Great, from the information, as he affirms, 
of four difciples of the faint. It is one of the 
word: that ever was written ; for though the 
lives of the faints in general are as richly 
larded with lies, there is not, perhaps, a 
fingle one, with any foundation in truth, from 
which fo little information can be obtained. 
He was born in the province of Nurfia, about 
the year 480, and was fent to Rome, to ftudy 
the liberal fciences ; but fearing left he mould 
lofe his foul in the vain purfuit of knowledge, 
cc recejjit fci enter nefciens, et fapienter indoc- 
tus" fays St. Gregory, he left his family, as 
well as his ftudies, became a monk, and was 
chofen abbot ; but being too ftricT: for thofe 
who were under him, they attempted to 
poifon him. After efcaping the danger, he 



* Capitularia Caroli. publi£hed by Baluzius, torn. i. p. 148. 



Caufes of Increafe, etc. 29 

retired for a while into folitude, till, " in- 
creafing wonderfully in virtue and miracles," 
the noble Romans began to bring their child- 
ren to him for inftru&ion, and he acquired 
fufficient influence to eftablifh twelve monas- 
teries, with twelve monks in each. Here 
alfo he provoked either envy by his reputa- 
tion, or hatred by his aufterity ; a prieft in the 
neighbourhood is accufed of endeavouring 
firft to poifon him, and afterwards to pervert 
his difciples, and Benedict thought it prudent 
once more to withdraw. He took with him 
a few of his monks, and was accompanied by 
two angels, and three tame cows ; a circum- 
ftance unaccountably omitted by his papal 
biographer, but related upon the equally valid 
teftimony of Pietro Damiano, a cardinal and 
a faint. With this remarkable retinue he 
arrived at Mount Caflino, formerly, it is faid, 
the refidence of the Roman author Varro. 
There he deftroyed a temple of Apollo, con- 
verted the pagans in the neighbourhood, 
founded a convent, wrote the rule of his 
order,* and died in the year 543. 

It may be obferved, that many learned 



* For an account of which, fee note by the Tranflator, 
in Mofheim, vol. ii. p. 22, pajflim. (Soames.) 



30 Monajiic Inftitutions. 

and illuftrious individuals have, from time to 
time, buried themfelves in monaftic feclufion. 
But, affuredly, this circumftance does not at 
all argue in favour of fimilar retreats ; al- 
though every one mull admit that monas- 
teries were, during the dark ages, the maga- 
zines of literature, and the repofitories of 
fcience.* And I am induced to think, with 
the Abbe Premord, that " an Alexander, a 
Caefar, a Homer, a Virgil, a Cicero, a Plato, 
a Demofthenes, and a Tacitus, would have 
remained entirely unknown to us, had it not 
been for the labours of monks and reclufes;" 
to whofe indefatigable pens each lover of 
fcience and literature muft confefs that he 
owes a large debt of gratitude, f Yet, how- 
ever highly we may be inclined to value the 
learning and perfevering efforts of thefe men, 
we cannot but cenfure the fyftem with which 
they were intimately connected ; as well as 
bear in mind, that— 

" Talents, angel-bright, 
If wanting worth, are fhining inftruments 
In falfe ambition's hand — to finifti faults 
Illuftrious, and give infamy renown !" 

* Mofheim's Eccles. Hift, vol. ii. p. 13. (Soames.) 
f Vide Mabillon, Ada. S. i. Ord. Benedi&i, torn. ii. 
p. 480. 



CHAPTER III. 



The u Gonfuetudinal" of Coenobites and 
Anchorites. 

" The Eremetical life is contrary to the nature of man when 
it was uncorrupt, for whom it was not judged good to be 
alone. As the folitary life is an enemy to mankind, (Gen. ii.) 
fo it is to the communion of faints in the Church of God. 
(Matt. v. 15.) The example of the primitive Church is 
againft it (Acts ii. 44) 5 and the uncleaneft and moft hateful 
birds covet defolate places. 1 ' — Carter on Matt, iii. 1. 

ONKS were originally diftin- 
guifhed by the names of Coe- 
nobites and Anchorites. The 
former fo called from the cir- 
cumftance of their living together under 
regular rules and difcipline \ the latter from 
their extraordinary fanaticifm in regulating 
their own individual obfervances, and hold- 
ing little or no intercourfe with each other. 
Thefe early feparatifts deprecated and con- 
temned the fpirit of the monaftery as much 




32 Monajlic Inftitutions. 

as they did that of the world ; and left they 
fhould be contaminated thereby, or induced 
to become as remifs and unmortified as 
others, fled from its baneful atmofphere into 
the inacceffible cave and uninhabitable defert, 
frequented only by animals of prey, whom 
they even affected to imitate by going upon 
their hands and knees ! Some afpirants took 
up their dwellings in the tombs, like the 
demoniacs, or abode in dens with wild beafts, 
or elfe made dens for themfelves, and bur- 
rowed into the ground. Here, indeed, they 
had ample opportunity for gratifying their 
favage propenfities ; and, accordingly, they 
embraced nich a mode of life with delight 
and fatis faction. But, as might be expected, 
they finally funk under the ftupendous weight 
of fuffering, occafioned, in part, by heavy 
chains, collars, bracelets, gauntlets, and 
greaves, of maflive and rigid iron. Even 
fome of thofe faints (forgive me for abufing 
the name) difdained the raiment neceflary 
for covering, and wandered about naked, 
expofed to the fun, the wind, and the fand 
mowers which fwept through the defert. 
A remarkable inftance of this peculiar fana- 
ticifm is exemplified in the life of St. Mary of 
Egypt — a perfon far-famed in monaftic lore. 



Coenobites and Anchorites. 33 



Others, again, affimilating themfelves more 
clofely to the very brute, a&u ally grazed in the 
fields of Mefopotamia ; from which circum- 
ftance they were denominated Bojkou And 
here it will not be ill-timed to mention a ftrange 
example of religious fatuity in the perfon of 
Simeon Stylites, the famous pillar- faint.* 

This extraordinary fanatic, a native of 
Sifan, in Syria, was engaged in the occupation 
of a fliepherd previous to his entering upon 
a monaftic life. Not confidering, however, 
the profeffion of a monk fufficiently auftere, 
he formed a fcheme, as novel as it was im- 
pious, by which he imagined the Divine 
juftice would be appeafed, and ample fatif- 
faction rendered for his tranfgreflions ! Ac- 
cordingly he quitted the cell, and betook 
himfelf to a dreary fpot in the defert ; where, 
with a view of efcaping the contagion of the 
world, and being lifted up above its cares, 
toils, and purfuits, he paffed thirty-feven 
years of his miferable life upon five pillars, of 
the refpeftive heights of fix, twelve, twenty- 
two, thirty-fix, and forty cubits. \ Upon 

* Sancli Columnares, or in Greek, Stylites. 

■f Vide Acts of Simeon the Stylite, in Steph. Euodii 
Affemanni Actis Martyrum Orient, et Occident, vol. ii. 
p. 227. (Romas 1748.) 



54 Mojiajiic Injiitutions. 

this laft lofty eminence he was bound by irons, 
fo that he was conftrained to remain in an 
immovable pofition \ and after performing 
rigorous mortifications, truly deferving of the 
name, which have helped, in no fmall degree, 
to fill the u merit box" of the Vatican, he 
finally expired. 

So great was the reputation of this fanatic, 
and fo highly was he venerated, that when 
the emperor Theodofius had given a com- 
mand to reinftate the Jews of Antioch in 
their fynagogue, and Simeon rebuked him 
for his conduit, Theodofius confefled the 
iniquity of which he was guilty : and, not 
deeming this a£t fufficient to expiate his fin, 
he actually depofed the civil officer who ad- 
vifed him in the affair, oufted the poor per- 
fecuted defcendants of Abraham, and finally 
befought, with earnefinefs and humiliation, 
the prayers and interceflion of the aerial 
faint ! 

After the deceafe of Simeon, a church was 
built round the pillar, upon which he pafTed 
fo great a portion of his life, in order to per- 
petuate the remembrance of fo devoted a 
man. And it is related on the authority of 
Evagrius, who had been a fpe£tator of the 
miracle, that on each anniverfary of the faint, 



Coenobites and Anchorites. 35 



a ftar was obferved playing about the lofty 
monument. Women were not permitted to 
enter the church on thefe aufpicious occa- 
fions ; they might only ftand at the door, 
and peep in, to witnefs the fupernatural ma- 
nifeftation of delight with which Heaven 
viewed a heap of ftones upon which the feet 
of fo auftere and fanctified a being once refted. 
His body was finally tranflated to Antioch ; 
and from thence would have been removed, 
by the emperor Leo, to Conftantinople, had 
it not been for the entreaty of the people of 
the former city, who reprefented that an 
earthquake had thrown down their fortifi- 
cations, and that they had brought thither 
the body of Simeon, in order to fupply for 
them the want of a wall. The actions of 
this madman, or " faint," according to the 
phrafeology of the fchoolmen, are recorded 
for edification, though not for imitation, by 
Romift hagiographers. " This godly man," 
writes Evagrius, " while yet in the flefh, 
imitated the life of angels, withdrew himfelf 
from earthly things, forced nature, which 
ever inclineth downwards, afpiring to things 
heavenly, and placing himfelf between earth 
and heaven, he, together with the angels, 
praifed the Lord, lifted up the prayers of 



36 Monajlic Injiitutions. 

men, and offered them to God, and brought 
down the mercy of God to make men par- 
takers thereof." 

There is mention made of a fecond Simeon 
the Stylite, who lived about the fixth century, 
and who, it is faid, exceeded, in mortification 
of life, the originator of the aerial feet. He 
lived upon his pillar fixty-eight years, and 
pretended to work miracles, and to prophefy.* 
Such are the fort of men held forth to the 
chriftian world as flowers of the fpiritual 
garden ; whereas, in truth, they are but rank 
weeds of the Egyptian foil. 

This extraordinary fuperftition of the Sy- 
rians and Orientals, the Latins had too much 
judgment and good fenfe to imitate ; nor was 
it countenanced by the bifhops of the Latin 
church : for when Wulfilaicus erected a 
pillar in Treves, with the view of imitating 
the renowned Simeon, by living on its fum- 
mit, the neighbouring bifhops would not 
fuffer him to put his defire into effect, and 
had the pillar crumbled to the ground. f 

The lives of monaftic heroes and heroines 
occafionally furnifli us with numerous in- 



* Evagrius Eccles. Hift. lib. vi. c. xxiii. p. 471. 

t Moflieim's Eccles. Hift. vol. i. p. 467-8. (Soames.) 



Coenobites and Anchorites. 37 



fiances of the fillieft extravagances, and the 
moft pitiable and loathfome exceffes of afcetic 
rigour. We read, for example, of St. Simon 
Stock, general of the Carmelites, who dwelt 
in the trunk of an old oak-tree ; of St. Pier, 
who always walked while he was taking his 
food, " becaufe," to ufe his own words, " he 
did not confider eating as a bufinefs for which 
time was to be fet apart, but as a thing to be 
done when it did not interrupt his avocation 
of Beradat, who ufed no clothing, except a 
clofe fack of fkins, which had no other open- 
ing than one for his nofe, and another for his 
mouth ; of the abbefs Terefa, who, in order 
to torment her body, which was naturally 
weak and delicate, made ufe of hair-fhirts, 
nettles, and fcourges, and even ufed to roll 
herfelf among thorns ; of Eufraxia, who be- 
longed to a convent containing one hundred 
and thirty nuns, not one of whom ever 
waflied her feet — the very mention of fuch 
an indulgence as a bath being an abomination 
to them ! 

St. Rofe of Lima, canonized by Clement X. 
A. d. 1673, was the moft precocious of 
faints. Born of chriftian parents, in South 
America, flie, from the period of her birth, 
(hone with the prefages of future holinefs. 



38 Monafkic Injlitutions . 

It is faid, that the face of the infant being 
miraculoufly transfigured into the image of 
a rofe, occafioned her being called by this 
name, to which the Virgin Mary added the 
furname, commanding her from thenceforth 
to be defignated the Rofe of St. Mary. She 
vowed perpetual virginity at the early age 
of five years ! * The following affe&ing 
account of the aufterities flie pra&ifed is 
extracted from the bull of her canonization, 
and affords a pitiable fpecimen of religious 
fanaticifm : — 

" She changed the ftones and croffes (with 
which, when going to prayer in her child- 
hood, and as yet ignorant of the ufe of whips, 
me was loaded by her maid Marianne, who 
was almoft the only perfon confcious of her 
mortifications) into iron chains, which ftie 
prepared as fcourges, and, after the exam- 
ple of St. Dominic, every night Ihe offered 
herfelf a bloody vi£tim to God to avert his 
juft anger, even to the copious effufion of 
ftreams of blood, either for the forrows of 
the holy church, or for the neceffities of the 
endangered kingdom of the city of Lima, or 
for compenfating the wrongs of finners, or 



* Brev. Rom. Die xxx. Aug. 



Coenobites and Anchorites. 39 



for making an expiation for the fouls of the 
dead, or for obtaining divine aid for thofe 
who were in their laft agonies ; the fervant 
being fometimes horror-ftruck at the dread- 
ful blows of the chains. And when the ufe 
of thefe were forbidden to her, flie privately 
encircled her waift with one of them, bound 
thrice round her, fo that it never was apparent 
that flie wore it, except when me was under 
the tortures of the fciatica, which chain was 
afterwards loofened only by a miracle. Its 
links after the virgin's death were found to 
emit a wondrous and indefcribable fweet 
odour. Left any part of her innocent body 
ftiould be free from fuffering, fhe tortured 
her arms and limbs with penal chains, and 
fluffed her breafts and fides with handfuls of 
nettles and fmall briars. She afterwards in- 
creafed the fharpnefs of the hair-cloth, that 
reached from her neck beneath her knees, 
by needles mixed up with it, which me ufed 
for many years, until fhe was ordered to put 
it off on account of the frequent vomiting of 
blood. When {he laid afide this punifliment, 
flie fubftituted another garment lefs injurious 
to her health, but not lefs troublefome ; for 
beneath it every movement was painful to 
her. Her feet only were free from thefe fuf- 



40 Monajlic Injlitutions . 

ferings, which either by hitting them with 
ftones, or by the burning of an oven, fhe did 
not fuffer to be free from torture. # * * 

" She fixed upon her head a tin crown, 
with fharp little nails in it, and for fome years 
never put it on without receiving wounds. 
When fhe grew older, this was replaced 
by one which was armed by ninety-nine 
points. * * * # 

" She defired the hardnefs of her bed to 
be fuch that it fhould rather drive away than 
invite fleep ; fo that when about to fleep, the 
fame fhould be both a bed to her and an in- 
ftrument of torture. Her pillow was either 
an unpolifhed trunk, or ftones concealed 
for this purpofe, which bed fhe afterwards fo 
filled with fharp pieces of tiles and triangular 
pieces of broken jugs, that the fharp points 
of each fhould be turned to her body ; nor 
did fhe try to fleep until fhe had embittered 
her mouth with a draught of gall. 

" Near the time of her death, Rofa through- 
out Lent alternately fang the canticles and 
praifes of God, every day for a whole hour, 
with a very melodious bird, in fo orderly a 
manner, that when the bird fang, the virgin 
was filent, and when the virgin fang, the 
bird, who was moft attentive, ceafed to fing. 



Coenobites and Anchorites. 41 



She invited, moreover, the inanimate plants, 
after an unheard-of fafhion, to praife and to 
pray to God, pronouncing the verfe, 'Bene- 
dicite univerfa germinantia in terra Domino' 
c Blefs the Lord, all ye things which bud on 
the earth. 5 And flie fo vifibly perfuaded 
them, that the tops of the trees touched the 
earth, as if adoring their Creator with a 
folemn veneration !"* 

The following fpecimen of worfe than 
Hindoo fanaticifm, eftablifhes the fact, that 
the Romifl: ftandard of fanctity in the nine- 
teenth century is juft the fame as it was dur- 
ing the dark ages, when the greateft knaves 
and madmen were canonized as faints, and 
obtained a place in the Calendar. It is the 
fworn teftimony of Father Dominic Corfano, 
miffionary of the Congregation of the moft 
holy Redeemer, and confeflbr to the vener- 
able fervant of God, Alphonfo Maria de 
Liguria, bifhop of St. Agatha, declared at his 
canonization, a.d. 1830:— 



* Codex Conftitutionum, quas fummi pontifices edide- 
runt in folemni canonizatione Sanctorum a Johanne xv. ad 
Benedi&um xiii., five ab an Dom. 993, ufque ad a. d. 
1729. Accurante Jufto Fontanino, Archiepifcopo An* 
cyrano. Romae, 1729. Ex. typographia Reverendse Ca- 
mera? Apoftolicae. 



42 Monajiic Injlitutions . 

" I know for a certainty that this fervant 
of God conftantly fcourged himfelf unbloodily 
and bloodily ; and befides the unbloody fcourg- 
ings enjoined by his rule, he was wont to 
punifh himfelf every day; in the morning 
before the ufual hour of rifing, and in the 
evening after the fignal for repofe. On Satur- 
days he fcourged himfelf till the blood flowed, 
and thefe fcourgings were fo violent, and 
caufed fo much blood to gum from his limbs, 
that not only was his linen always covered 
with it, but you might even fee the walls of 
his fmall roomftained, and his books fprinkled 
with it. * * * # Alfo from what I 
have feen with my own eyes, and have heard 
declared by certain fathers who are worthy 
of credit, I know that this fervant of God 
macerated his body with hair-cloth with fharp 
points in it, and with chains, as well on the 
arms as on the legs, which he carried with 
him till dinner time, and thefe for the moft 
part were fo armed with (harp points, that 
they filled with horror all who ever faw them. 
I have heard fay, alfo, that he had a drefs 
filled with a coat of mail with iron points ; 
that he had bandages of camel's hair ; and 
other inftruments of penance were cafually 
feen by me, and by others of my companions, 



Coenobites and Anchorites. 43 

notwithstanding his zealous and circumfpe£t 
fecrecy. 

" Of a fimilar kind was his extreme mor- 
tification in fleeping upon two planks covered 
with a fack, with a little ftraw in it, fo that it 
appeared a hard ft one. I frequently alfo 
heard fay, that he flept during his few hours 
with a large ftone hung on, and tied to his 
feet. * . * * * 

" I well remember that he never fhaved 
himfelf when he was with us with a razor, 
but only by little and little he did it with pin- 
cers, and he caufed his affiftant friar to make 
his clerical crown with the fame pincers !" # 

The Roman Breviary is the repertory of 
legends as monftrous and ridiculous as thofe 
already brought before the reader's notice. 
Therein we read, that St. Raymond of Pen- 
nafort made a voyage by fea of one hundred 
and fixty miles, from one of the Balearic 
Ifles to Barcelona, neither in a fhip, nor in 
a boat, but upon his own cloak ;f that St. 



* Sacra rituum congregatione, emo. et Rmo. Domino 
Cardinali Carracciolo relatore, beatificationis et canoniza- 
tionis, ven. Servi Dei Alphonfi Maria de Ligurio, funda- 
toris congregations femi. Redemptoris, ac olim Epifcopi 
S. Agatha. Romae, 1836. Apud Lazarinum, Rev. Cam. 
Apos. typographum. 

f Breviarum Romanum, Die xxiii. Januarii. 



44 Monajlic Injiitutions. 

Philip, of Nerium, was fo wounded with the 
love of God, he continually languifhed ; and 
his heart boiled over with fuch ardour, that 
when it could not be contained within its own 
boundaries, the Lord wonderfully enlarged 
his breaft, by breaking and elevating two of 
his ribs ;* that St. Dionyfius walked, with 
his head in his hands, from Paris to the fite 
of the prefent abbey of St. Denis ;f that St. 
Nicholas, a holy infant, ufed regularly abftain 
from fuck on Wednefdays and Fridays ; % 
that St. Benedict, founder of an order of 
monks, ufed to work miracles habitually, raife 
the dead to life, and fing pfalms before he 
was born and that St. Patrick was wont 



* Breviarum Roman am, Die xxvi. Maii. 
f Ibid. Die ix. Oftobris. 
J Ibid. Die vi. Decembris. 

§ Ibid. Die xxi. Martii. This ftrange incident is thus 
gravely narrated by the Ciftercian poet, F. Nicholas Bravo, 
in his Benediflina, on the authority of Bonifacius Simoneta, 
an abbot of his order : — 

" Encarcelado en el lugar materno, 

Alegres mueftras el infante dava, 
Articulando con un fon fuperno 

La voz que claro afuera refonava ; 
Ya en efto el nino delicada y tierno 

El gozo celeftial pronofticava, 
Pues, aunque en carcel tenebrofa y negra 



Ccenobites and Anchorites. 45 



to repeat daily the whole pfalter, together 
with the canticles, and two hundred hymns 
and prayers ; three hundred times on each 
day to worfhip God upon his knees, and in 
each canonical hour of the day to fign him- 
felf one hundred times with the fign of the 
crofs. Dividing the night into three portions, 
he fpent the firft in running through one 
hundred pfalms, and in two hundred genu- 
flexions ; the fecond, in running through the 
other fifty pfalms, immerfed in cold water ; 
and with his heart, eyes, and hands, raifed to 
heaven, he yielded the third part to a fhort 
fleep upon a hard ftone.* 

Mifs Nano Nagle, a ftriking illuftration, 
in even recent times, of the dreadful and de- 
grading fyftem of monachifm — an engine of 
deftru£r.ion wielded with powerful effect in 



Con celeftiales canticos fe alegra. 
Que pudo fer la vida de efte infante, 

Sino content©, jubilo, alborozo> 
Pues fin mira del fol la luz radiante, 

Antes que fepa el llanto, mueftra el gozo 
Ya da indicios alegres de triumphante 

Del infernal y Tartaro deftrozo, 
Semejante al Baptifta en gloria tanta, 

Pues donde danca Juan, Benito canta." 

* S. Patritius Breviarum Romanum. Die xvii. Martii. 
Antverpae, 1823. 



46 Monaftic Injiitutions. 

advancing the interefts of the Papal church- 
was well known as the founder of the Pre- 
fentation Order of nuns in Ireland. To fuch 
an extent was her mind influenced by reli- 
gious fanaticifm, that me remained almoft 
continually in a kneeling pofture, to enhance 
the merit of her devotions. Her knees be- 
came, in confequence, ulcerated; but me 
did not ceafe to alTume this attitude, nor 
would me employ a remedy, although there 
is not the flighteft doubt that fo protra£ted 
an a£t of aufterity, tended to haften her dif- 
folution : # — 

" O judgment, thou haft fled to brutifh beafts, 
And men have loft their reafon ! " 

The ecclefiaftical hiftorian, defcribing 
Romift faints, truly obferves : — 

" No models of rational piety are to be 
found among thofe pretended worthies, whom 
they propofe to chriftians as objects of imi- 
tation. They amufe their readers with gi- 
gantic fables and trifling romances. The 
example they exhibit are thofe of certain de- 
lirious /ana tics ^ whom they call faints; men 
of a corrupt and perverted judgment, who 
offered violence to reafon and nature by the 



* Vide Life of Mifs Nano Nagle. 



Coenobites and Anchorites. 47 



horrors of an extravagant aufterity in their 
own conduit, and by the feverity of thofe 
Angular and inhuman rules which they pre- 
ferred to others. For, by what means were 
thefe men fainted? By ftarving themfelves 
with a frantic obftinacy, and bearing the ufe- 
lefs hardfliips of hunger, thirft, and inclement 
feafons, with fteadfaftnefs and perfeverance ; 
by running about the country like madmen, 
in tattered garments, and fometimes half 
naked, or Ihutting themfelves up in a narrow 
fpace, where they continued motionlefs ; by 
{landing for a long time in certain poftures, 
with their eyes clofed, in the enthufiaftic ex- 
pectation of divine light. All this was faint- 
like and glorious ; and the more that any 
ambitious fanatic departed from the dictates 
of reafon and common fenfe, and counter- 
feited the wild geftures and the incoherent 
conducT: of an idiot, or a lunatic, the furer 
was his profpecT: of obtaining an eminent rank 
among the heroes and demi-gods of a corrupt 
and degenerate church. 5 '* 

Perhaps no other religious fyftem has given 
rife to fuch grofs extravagances as chrifti- 
anity,when miftakenand perverted, is known 



* Molheim's Eccles. Hift. lib. ii. cent. vi. p. ii. c. iii. § 7. 



48 Monajiic Injlitutions. 

to have fuperinduced. That the pureft and 
moft perfect code of ethical philofophy ever 
propounded to the world fhould have been 
the indirect caufe of human error, folly, and 
crime, is truly lamentable, and ftiould teach us 
to pity as well as to condemn the weakneffes 
and abfurdities of mankind. Generally, per- 
haps, we are all too liable to be led away by 
our flrft emotions, when perufing the vari- 
ous examples of fanaticifm which the hifto- 
rian has recorded, and of pronouncing an 
unmitigated cenfure, never once taking into 
account the peculiar circumftances conduc- 
ing to fuch a rude and unnatural condition 
of things. This is undoubtedly an original 
and grave error. There is an imbecility 
quite as much the effedr. of time and place, 
as of organization and ignorance. If inten- 
tion be taken into account, no one is foolifli, 
and even monafticifm is wife if the rationale 
thereof could be admitted. What, indeed, 
could be expe&ed of a reafonable character 
at an epoch when Reafon itfelf had been de- 
throned, and when Fanaticifm ufurped fu- 
preme fway over the human mind ? When, 
in point of faith, no axioms of morality were 
more firmly eftabliflied than the belief that 
every indulgence was criminal \ that what- 



Coenobites and Anchorites. 49 



ever gratified the fenfes, however apparently 
innocent, muft be injurious to the foul ; # that 
the ties of human affe&ion weaned the heart 
from God ; f that the duties of focial life 
muft be abandoned by thofe who regarded 
their falvation ; % and that in proportion as a 
man infli£ted privations and heaped torments 
upon himfelf, he pleafed his Creator ? § 
What, indeed, could be expe£ted under a 
perverted moral regime like this, different to 
that which the page of hiftory fo painfully 
records ? And what can be expefted of a 
diflimilar nature, fo long as the like morbid 
and diftorted notions of " pure and undefiled 
religion" continue to be countenanced, nay, 
even recommended by thofe who certainly 
ought to know better, and whofe facred duty 



* Aldhelm, writing to his pupil Adelwold, defires him 
to avoid conviviality, the culpable exercife of riding, or 
any " accurfed pleafures of bodily indulgence.' 1 — Anglla 
Sacr, i. 

f Dimitte omnia, et invenies omnia. — If thou leaveft 
all for God, thou malt find all in God. — Thomas a Kempis. 

J Facilis via de cella ad ccelum. Vix unquam aliquis e 
cella infernum defcendit. From the cell to heaven the 
way is very eafy 5 one can fcarcely go down from thence 
into hell. — St, Bernard, 

§ The religious fuffers to render himfelf more acceptable 
to God. — Liguori. 



so Monajiic Inflitutions. 

it is, as teachers of chriftianity, to inculcate 
the reverfe ? But the Romiih church is 
very fearful of change ; confequently, {he 
conferves everything and reforms nothing. 
To be confiftent with herfelf fhe is necessi- 
tated fo to do ; although the very guarding 
againft innovation manifeftly implies tenacity 
of obfolete barbarifm. Hence, when the om- 
nipotence of modern thought entered within 
the penetralia of the Convent of St. Maur, 
and the learned Benedi£lines tried the ex- 
perimentof commutingcertaintirefome duties 
of the Rule, as unworthy of the age in which 
they lived, and with the view of profecuting 
more unremittingly the purfuit of learning, 
and ifluing more frequently valuable publi- 
cations, the difpenfation was immediately re- 
fufed — as a daring innovation.* 



* Vide " D'Ifraeli's Curiofities of Literature with refer- 
ence to the Benedictines." 



CHAPTER IV. 



Character of thofe who embraced the Monajiic 
ProfeJJion. 

" Monaftic inftitutions were in the firft ages merely fu~ 
perftitious; but they ended in being eminently corrupt and 
wicked." 

ITH reference to the character 
of thofe felf-righteous Phari- 
fees> who fought, both in the 
defert and the cell, to attain a 
tranfcendental purity and perfediion by the 
regular performance of a certain routine of 
duties, and the fcrupulous obfervance of rules 
and conftitutions, as abfurd in their nature 
as they were degrading to focial beings, I 
{hall, in the firft inftance, take an extract 
from the writings of Rutilius, a celebrated 
traveller, who, upon vifiting the illand of 
Capraria, originally inhabited by wild goats, 
and taking its name from that circumftance, 




52 Monaftic Institutions. 

exprefled his furprife, on beholding its new 
inhabitants, in the following terms : — 

<c The whole illand is filled, or rather de- 
filed, by men who fly from the light. They 
call themfelves monks, or folitaries, becaufe 
they defire to live alone, without any wit- 
nefles of their actions. They fear the gifts 
of fortune from the apprehenfion of lofing 
them ; and left they mould be miferable, they 
embrace a life of voluntary wretchednefs. 
How abfurd is their choice, how perverfe 
their underftanding, to dread the evils with- 
out being able to fupport the bleflings of the 
human condition. Either this melancholy 
madnefs is the effe£t of difeafe, or elfe the 
confcioufnefs of guilt urges thefe unhappy 
men to exercife on their own bodies the tor- 
tures which are inflifted on fugitive flaves by 
the hands of juftice."* 

Another writer,f alluding to that divifion 
of the Francifcan order, denominated the 
" Spirituals," obferves : — 

" So mad were thefe monks, that they 
conceived there was more honour in living 



* Claud. Rutul. Numation. Itinerar. I. 439. 
f The author of the Life of the Regent Murray, patron 
of the Reformation in Scotland. 



Character of the Monaftics. 53 

by beggary than in any other profeffion. 
They roved about barefooted, and clad in 
coarfe raiment, whining in every diftricl, and 
rejoicing in their poverty ; and at this period 
the miraculous fight was feen of a great fchifm 
in the church, occafioned folely by the fana- 
ticifm of thofe wealthy votaries of St. Francis, 
the prince of beggars. * * * * 

" But the truth is, if we reckon not the 
bodily mortifications to which thofe devotees 
might have fubmitted, there was literally 
nothing in all this profeffion of beggary which 
deferved the name ; for though they un- 
doubtedly fubfifted by alms, it was not de- 
fined of what thefe alms fhould confift ; and 
hence, although beggary was their glory, and 
the order of mendicancy their higheft boaft, 
they neverthelefs, in fuperftitious times, fared 
not much worfe than thofe who faw no caufe 
for glorying in fuch a diftinflion. And the 
influence which they pofleffed by thus aflbci- 
ating themfelves with men of all ranks, and 
by this accommodation of themfelves to 
every condition, enabled them to preferve the 
protection of the great, to gain ready accefs 
to every habitation, to interfere in every do- 
meftic circle, and to obtain devotees to their 
confeffionals. They were, in fhort, a fet of 



54 Monajlic Injii tut ions. 

peripatetic ecclefiaftics ; and latterly, like all 
the other orders, they degenerated into roving 
priefts."* 

Dalzell, after employing the epithet " truly 
licenfed vagabonds," proceeds to fay of the 
monks: — "Their only juft chara£teriftics 
were ignorance and affurance, levying a 
general contribution for their maintenance. 
Their bufinefs was to keep the people as 
ignorant as themfelves, and to inculcate a 
profound veneration for faints, relics, and the 
minifters of the church. Their manners 
were rude, brutal, and rapacious. They 
were vagrant monks." f 

It is a matter of undoubted teftimony that, 
fo ignorant were many of the ecclefiaftics of 
the fixteenth century that they believed the 
New Teftament to be written by Martin 
Luther, and confequently regarded it as a 
wicked book. Miiller relates that, about the 
time of the Reformation a bifhop of Dun- 
feldt congratulated himfelf upon never hav- 
ing learned Greek or Hebrew. The monks 
afferted that all herefies arofe from the Greek. 
" The New Teftament," faid one of the 



* Life of George Buchanan. 

f Curfory Remarks, vol. i. p. 1 6. 



Character of the Monaftics. 55 

fraternity, " is a book full of ferpents and 
thorns. Greek is a modern language, recently- 
invented, againft which we muft be on our 
guard. As to Hebrew, my dear brethren, 
it is certain that whoever ftudies it becomes 
immediately a Jew !" Even the Parifian 
School of Theology folemnly put forth this 
announcement : — " There is an end of re- 
ligion if the ftudy of Hebrew and Greek is 
permitted." Perhaps this almoft incredible 
ignorance is not to be wondered at when we 
bear in mind that, as late as the year 1400 
fcarce any book, except miflals, was found 
in Rome. Of courfe, there have been fome 
noble exceptions to the general rule ; and, as 
I before obferved, feveral learned monks 
applied themfelves diligently and laborioufiy 
to Herculean talks, and tenacioufly preferved 
and carefully tranfcribed works of utility and 
merit, which, but for their labours, would 
never have been tranfmitted to pofterity. 

Mofheim, the ecclefiaftical hiftorian, fpeak- 
ing of monkilh orders, fays : — " The multi- 
tude had fuch a high opinion of thofe fturdy 
beggars, and of their credit with the Supreme 
Being, that great numbers of both fexes, fome 
in health, others in a ftate of infirmity, others 
at the point of death, earneftly defired to be 



56 Monajiic Injiitutions. 

admitted into the mendicant orders, which 
they looked upon as afafeand infallible method 
of rendering heaven propitious. Many made 
it an effential part of their laft wills, that their 
carcaffes, after death, fhould be wrapped in 
old ragged Dominican or Francifcan habits, 
and interred among the mendicants. For 
fuch was the barbarous fuperftition and 
wretched ignorance of this age, that people 
univerfally believed they fhould readily obtain 
mercy from Chrift at the day of judgment, 
if they appeared before his tribunal affociated 
with the mendicant friars."* 

Nicholas de Clemangius, pupil of the 
celebrated Gerfon, re&or of the Univerfity 
of Paris, and Secretary to Benedict XII., a 
man of no ordinary powers of mind, and a 
profound and accomplifhed fcholar, who, 
from the circumftance of his being connected 
with the Papal court, muft have had peculiar 
facilities afforded him of acquiring informa- 
tion upon ecclefiaftical matters, thus writes, 
in his defcription of the monaftic orders : — 

" I fhould have much to fay of the monks 
and monaftics, were I not long ere this weary 
of the enumeration of fo many and fuch great 



Mofheim's Eccles. Hift. vol. ii. p. 660. (Soames.) 



CharaSier of the Monajiics. 5 7 

abominations. Yet, not to fuffer them to 
pafs wholly untouched, it is neceflary to fay 
fomething. But what good can be faid of 
thofe who, in proportion as they are bound 
by their vows to be perfeft above all other 
fons of the church, abftra&ed from the care 
of worldly things, which they have renounc- 
ed, and raifed up to the contemplation of 
heavenly things alone ; in proportion as they 
are obliged to be more temperate, lefs difpofed 
to wander, and to go more feldom from the 
walls of their cloifter into public, in the fame 
proportion exhibit themfelves, on the con- 
trary, as more than others, ftrangers to all 
thefe obligations ; more grafping, more avari- 
cious, more immerfed in fecular affairs, more 
flippery, more undifciplined, diflblute, and 
reftlefs, more prone to run about into public, 
and even, if the reins are loofened, indecent 
places ; fo as that nothing is fo odious to them 
as the cell and the cloifter, reading and prayer, 
their rule and their profeflion. Wherefore 
they are monks indeed in their outward habit^ 
but in life, in practice, inwardly in the defile- 
ment of their confciences, they are very far 
removed from that perfection which their 
habit pretends. Verily they grievoufly de- 
ceive themfelves. For the more theyaban- 



58 Monaftic Injiitutions. 

don their profeflion, and feek eagerly after 
earthly riches, fo much the lefs do they really 
hold, and fo much the more do their endow- 
ments and revenues run away to nothing. 

" The nuns only now remain. * * * 
But modefty forbids me to fay much of 
thefe, though I have much to fay, left we 
mould draw out to too great length a difcourfe 
which mould apply not to a choir of virgins 
dedicated to God, but rather to '* * * 
* % * # anc j me i m p ur e practices of 
unchaftity. For what, I pray you, are the 
nunneries now but fanctuaries — not of God, 
but of Venus?"* 

The fame writer further obferves : — " I 
would not that any mould fuppofe that I in- 
volve all our ecclefiaftics, without any excep- 
tion, in fuch charges. I know that he did 
not, and could not lie, who -faid, c Peter, I 
have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.' 
Nor am I ignorant that there are in every 
ftation fome, and perhaps many, good, juft, 
and innocent men, who ftand aloof from thofe 
crimes which have been mentioned. But 
fo great is the overflow of the wicked in all 



* Compare Ivo of Charles, Ep. 70, and the note of 
Juretus upon that place. 



Char after of the Monajiics. 59 

profeffions, that fcarce one in a thoufand can 
be found who honeftly performs what his 
profeffion requires. Nay, if there chances 
to be fome fimple, chafte, and frugal man, 
in a college or convent, who does not purfue 
the broad and flippery road, he is made a jeft 
of by the reft, and is prefently called an 
oddity, or fingular perfon, a madman, or a 
hypocrite. Whence alfo many who might 
have turned out well, if they had lived with 
modeft and good men, drawn away in this 
manner by the company of evil comrades, 
are led into evil, through fear of incurring fuch 
nicknames in their fraternities."* 

I may, perhaps, indulge the hope that en- 
lightened Romanifts will receive with refpe£t 
a teftimony emanating from the pen of fo 
talented and diftinguifhed a member of their 
communion. 

The moderate and candid CafTander, allud- 
ing to the low ftate of morals amongft the 
religious orders of his time, remarks : — 

" It is fufficiently manifeft of itfelf how 
much monkery has degenerated from its firft 
origin, and with what abufes it has become con- 



* De Corrupto Stat. Eccles. Lib. in Fafc. Rer. Expet. et 
Fug. torn. ii. Lond. 1690. 



60 Monajlic Injlitutions. 

taminated. The empty obfervance of cere- 
monies has fo impaired and obfcured religion 
amongft moft monks, that you will hardly 
find anywhere a more licentious and profane 
mode of life than that which is practifed in 
fome monafteries. So that it is no wonder 
if, as the monaftic life generally now is, it is 
expofed to the hatred and reprehenfion of 
many." # 

As a further teftimony of the inconfiftency 
of character in perfons profeffing to be fcru- 
puloufly obfervant of the rules of monaftic life, 
I mail adduce the evidence of one who, for 
feveral years, both in the capacity of a novice, 
and a profefTed nun, was in connection with 
the Hotel Dieu Nunnery ^ at Montreal : — 

" I have often refle£ted," obferves the 
writer, " how grievoufly I had been deceived 
in my opinion of a nun's condition ! All the 
holinefs of their lives, I now faw, was merely 
pretended. The appearance of fan&ity and 
heavenly-mindednefs which they had mown 
amongft us novices, I found was only a dif- 
guife to conceal fuch pra&ices as would not 
be tolerated in any decent fociety in the world ; 
and as for peace and joy like that of heaven, 



* Inter opp. Grotii. Theol. torn. iii. p. 608. 



Character of the Monaflics. 61 

which I had expe&ed to find among them, 
I learned too well that they did not exift 
here"* 

I mail now allude to the declaration drawn 
up and figned by fix nuns of St. Catherine 
of Piftoia, and prefented to the Grand Duke 
Leopold, a. d. 1775, which makes mention 
of the profligacy and grofs impiety of the 
Dominican fathers ; in confequence of which 
complaint five convents were removed from 
the direction of thefe confeflbrs. In it they 
obferve :— 

cc Inftead of allowing us to remain in our 
fimplicity,and protecting our innocence, they 
teach us both by word and action, all kinds 
of indecencies. They come frequently to 
the facrifty, of which they poflefs the keys. 
When, befides this they find any occafion 
or pretence for entering the nunnery, they 
remain alone with their favourites in their 
cells. All are alike, not excepting the pro- 
vincials. They utter the worft expreflions, 
faying, that we mould look upon it as a great 
happinefs in having the power of fatisfying 
our appetites without being expofed to the an- 
noyance of bringing up children. They fuffer 



* Sequel to the Difclofures of Maria Monk. 



6 z Monajlic Injlitutions. 

the nuns to remain away a long time from 
the facraments, and are at no pains to induce 
mental prayer, but preach only about the 
happinefs of this life. The nuns, who live 
according to fuch direction, are praifed and 
gratified in everything, however extravagant. 
The others muft needs ftrain their con- 
fciences, or be in a perpetual warfare.* 

In addition to this document, a confirma- 
tory depofition, of a more prolix kind and 
lefs abounding in generalities, was, in reply to 
feveral interrogatories, made by Sifter Flavia 
Peraccini. Amongft many particulars fhe 
mentions that — 

" Every year when the monks bring to us 
the holy water, they upfet it in their playing 
with the nuns. What revels they make ! 
One time they warned Father Manni's face, 
and drefled him up as a nun. In fhort, they 
made fcenes of conftant amufement for them- 
felves, &c. Do not fay that thefe things 
occur alone in our convent. They go on 
at St. Lucia, at Prato, at Pifa, at Perugia, and 
I have heard things that would aftonifh. In 
them all there are the fame proceedings, in 
all the fame diforders, in all the fame abufes. 



Rofcoe's Life of Scipio de Ricci, vol. i. 



Character of the Monaflics. 63 

A monk faid to myfelf that if a nun's veil 
were placed on one pole, and a monk's cowl 
on another, fo great is the force of fympathy 
that the veil and the cowl would come to- 
gether and unite. I fay, and repeat it, that 
whatever the fuperiors know, they do not 
know the leaft portion of the great evils that 
pafs between the monks and the nuns." 

The founder of the famous Benedictines, 
in the opening of the rule of his order, fails 
not to animadvert upon the degeneracy of 
the fraternity. By the way, this rule has 
been compared to Aaron's rod, becaufe it 
fwallowed up all the others. At the fecond 
Council of Douzy, in 876, it was declared 
to be an infpired work, of equal authority 
with the canonical Scriptures and the writings 
of the Catholic doctors. Leo, archbifhop of 
Ravenna, calls it a divine rule, dictated by 
the Holy Ghoft, and leading infallibly to 
heaven. The Grand Duke, Cofmo de 
Medici, ftudied it, that he might there learn 
how to govern his eftates ; and Calmet af- 
firms, that in this work St. Benedict has 
prefented an ideal of the moft excellent mo- 
narchy and the moft perfect government. 
More than two hundred works have been 
written upon it, of which the beft is a Com- 



64 Monajlic Injlitutions. 

mentary, in two quarto volumes, by Calmet 
himfelf. The original rule, an autograph of 
Benedict, was burnt A. d. 897, in the mo- 
naftery of Theano, when that edifice was 
confumed by fire. Some far more curious 
relics were deftroyed at the fame time, the 
facks in which food ufed to be fent to the 
faint from heaven ! — " Sacci^ in quibus jujfu 
Dei) ccelitus eidem Patri Benediffo efca delates 
funt ! " * However, St. Benedict thus writes 
with reference to the monaftics : — 

" There are four kinds of monks. The 
firft is of Coenobites, that is monafterial or 
conventual, living under a rule or abbot. 
The fecond kind is of Anchorites, that is 
hermits, who not by a novitial fervour of 
devotion, but by a long probation in a mo- 
naftic life, have learnt, with the affiftance of 
others to fight againfl: the devil ; and being 
well armed, are able now, without the fup- 
port of any other, by God's help, to fight 
hand to hand againfl: the vices of the flefh 
and evil cogitations, and fo proceed from the 
fraternal army to the fingle combat of the 
wildernefs. The third and fouleft kind of 
monks are the Saraibaites, who not having 



* Chronicon Caflinenfe. 




Character of the Monajiics. 65 

been tried under any rule by the experience 
of a fkilful mafter, as gold is tried in the fur- 
nace, but being foft as lead, and frill adhering 
by their a£tions to the world, are known by 
their tonfures to be liars unto God ; who two 
or three together, or perhaps fmgly, without 
a fhepherd, are fhut up, not in the Lord's 
fheepfold, but in their own ; and the pleafure 
of their defires is to them a law ; and what- 
foever they like or choofe, this they will have 
to be holy, and what they miflike, that not 
to be lawful. The fourth are they who are 
called Gyrovagi, who all their life wander 
through divers provinces, and gueft-wife, fray 
two or three days in one monaftery, and then 
in another, and are always ftrolling and never 
fettled, and giving themfelves altogether to 
their own pleafures and to the enticements 
of gluttony, are in all things worfe than the 
Saraibites, of the moft miferable converfation, 
of all which it is better to he filent than to 
/peak /"* So far from the pen of St. Bene- 

dia. 

St. Bernard, abbot, thus defcribes the 



* Trans, of the Rule of St. Benedift, by C. G., prieft and 
monk of the Order. Douay, 1638, 
F 



66 Monajiic Injlitutions. 

worldly-mindednefs and immorality of the 
monks of his day : — 

" What mall I fay concerning their very 
drefs, in which not warmth but colour is 
fought after, and neatnefs of apparel, rather 
than virtue, is confidered ! / am ajhamed to 
declare it ! But even women are furpaffed in 
their love of drefs, fince richnefs of apparel, 
and not what is neceffary, is ftudied by the 
monks nor is even the form of religion re- 
tained ! The foldiers of Chrift defire rather 
to be gaily dreffed than to be armed."* 

St. Bridget, in her " Revelations," which 
were recognized by the Councils of Conftance 
and Bafle, and by Urban VI., Martin V., 
and Paul V., after making fuch remarks on 
the deportment of the monks and nuns as 
that I am compelled by feelings of delicacy 
to conceal them under the veil of the origi- 
nal, f proceeds to fay :— 



* S. Bern. Ab. in Vig. Nat. Dom. Serm. i. De Monach. 

\ Orta eft abufio gravis, in hoc, quod laicis bona eccle- 
fiae donantur, qui uxores non ducunt propter nomen canoni- 
cal, fed impudentur habent concubinas in domibus fuis 
perdies, et in lectis per nodes, dicentes audacter, nos non 
licet efle in connubio, qu : a canonici fumus. Prefbyteri 
etiam diaconi et fubdiaconi> olim in infamiam immundae 
vitae maxime abhorrebant. Nunc autem quidam illorum 



Character of the Monajiics. 67 

" It is a fad thing to behold their rules 
changed into deteftable abufes." And again, 
alluding to the nuns, flie obferves : — 

• " The doors through which the fitters are 
pleafed to afford an entrance to clergy and 
laity, are open even at night ; and therefore 
fuch places refemble rather houfes of bad fame 
than holy cloifters !" # 

In the Homilies of the Anglican church 
we are prefented with the following vivid 
delineation of monafticifm, as it appeared at 
a more modern epoch :— 

" Palling over the innumerable fuperfti- 
tioufnefs that hath been in ftrange apparel, in 
filence, in dormitory, in cloifter, in chapter, 
in choice of meats and drinks, and in fuch 
like things, let us confider what enormities 
and abufes have been in the three principal 
points, which they call the three eflentials, 
or chief foundations of religion ; that is to 

manifefte lastantur in eo, quod meretrices eorum intumefcente 
ventre veniunt inter alias ambulare. Nec etiam pudet eos fi 
ab amicis eorum dicitur eis, ecce, domiiie, cito natus erit 
vobisfilius vel filia ! — Revelationem S. Birgitta^ lib. iv. c. 33. 
(Edit. Colonise, 1829.) 

* Portae indifferenter clericis et laicis quibus placet foro- 
ribus introitum dare etiam in ipfis noctibus funt apertae. Et 
ideo talia loca fimiliora lupanaribus, quam fanctis clauftris. 
— Revel. S. Birgttta-) lib. iv. c. 33* 



68 Monajlic Injiitutions. 

fay, obedience^ chajlity, and wilful poverty. 
Firft, under pretence or colour of obedience 
to their father in religion, which obedience 
they made themfelves, they were made free 
by their rules and canons from the obedience 
of their natural father and mother, and from 
the obedience of emperor and king, and all 
temporary power, whom of very duty, by 
God's laws, they were bound to obey. And 
fo the profeffion of their obedience not due, 
was a forfaking of their due obedience. And 
how their profeffion of chaftity was kept, it 
is more honeft to pafs over in filence, and 
let the world judge of what is well known, 
than with unchafte words, by expreffing of 
their unchafte life, to offend chafte and godly 
ears. And as for their wilful poverty, it was 
fuch that, when in poffeffions, jewels, plate, 
and riches, chey were equal or above mer- 
chants, gentlemen, barons, earls, and dukes ;* 
yet by this fubtile, fophiftical term, proprium 
in communis that is to fay, proper in common, 
they mocked the world ; perfuading that not- 

* Abbots and priors as late as the 18th century, governed 
their abbeys with fovereign control ; and their revenues and 
poffeffions were fo great as to entitle them to feats in Parlia* 
ment among the peers. — Monafikon H'ibernicum t by Mervin 
Archdall, A.M. M.R.I. A. 



CharaBer of the Mona flics. 69 

withftanding all their pofleffions and riches, 
yet they kept their vow, and were in wilful 
poverty. But for all their riches, they might 
neither help father nor mother, nor other that 
were indeed very needy and poor, without 
the licenfe of their father-abbot, prior, or 
warden ; and yet they might take of every 
man, but they might not give aught to any 
man ; no, not to thofe whom the laws of God 
bound them to help % % % * * And 
the longer prayers they ufed by day and night, 
under pretence and colour of holinefs, to get 
the favour of widows and other fimple folk, 
that they might fing trentalles and fervice 
for their hufbands and friends, and admit or 
receive them into their prayers, the more 
truly is verified of them the faying of Chrift : 
c Woe unto you fcribes, and pharifees, hypo- 
crites ! For you devour widows' houfes under 
colour of long prayers, therefore your con- 
demnation mall be the greater.' "* 

We have, further, a very appalling picture 
prefented to us of monaftic profligacy, drawn 
by the mafterly hand of the Rev. Jofeph 
Blanco White, once a prieft of the Romift 
Church, and chaplain to the king of Spain. 



* Homily of Good Works, part iii. 



70 Monajiic Injiituttons. 

After defcribing, at great length, the immoral 
practices of the Spanifh ecclefiaftics, and other 
priefts of his acquaintance, fome of whom, 
in confequence of their depraved habits, were 
prematurely cut off the ftage of exiftence in a 
ftate of frantic infanity, he proceeds to remark 
of the nuns : — 

" The picture of female convents requires 
a more delicate pencil. Yet I cannot find 
tints fufficiently dark and gloomy to portray 
the miferies which I have witnefled in their 
inmates. Crime, indeed, makes its way into 
thofe receffes, in fpite of the fpiked walls and 
prifon gates which protect the inhabitants. 
This I know with all the certainty which the 
felf-accufation of the guilty can give / It is, 
befides, a notorious fact, that the nunneries 
in Eftremadura and Portugal are frequently 
infected with vice of the groffeft kind."* 

Speaking of the character of the fecularand 
regular clergy of the I2th century, Mofheim 
obferves : — 

" Of the flagitious conduct, the frauds, 
the ignorance, and the corruption of the in- 
ferior bimops, the priefts, and the deacons, 



* Pradical and Internal Evidence againft Catholicifm. 
(Lond» 1825.) 



Char after of the Monajlics. 71 

the whole hiftory of thefe times, and the laws 
of the ecclefiaftical councils, afforda mple 
teftimony. It is not ftrange, therefore, that 
the monks were in higher repute than the 
fecular clergy ; for being bound by their vows 
and by their refpedtive rules of life, they had 
fewer opportunities of committing crimes. 
And yet thefe monks, who claimed pre-emi- 
nence in the church, and defpifed and in- 
veighed againft both the fecular clergy and 
the regular canons, had in moft places departed 
entirely from their inftitutions and rules, and 
exhibited to the public patterns of vice and 
wickednefs, rather than of virtue. The Clu- 
niacenfians were for a long time the beft and 
moft devout among the Benedidtines ; but 
under their abbot, Pontius, being loaded with 
wealth and riches by the liberality of the 
pious, they entirely laid afide their former 
ftri&nefs, and copied after the bafe lives of 
the other Benedi£tines. And, although fome 
of the fucceeding abbots endeavoured to cure 
the evil, their efforts fell far below their 
wifhes and their expectations ; nor could 
the primitive fandtity of Clugni ever be re- 
ftored."* 



* Eccles, Hift. vol. ii. p. 457-8. (Soames.) 



72 Monajlic Injiitutions. 

Archbiftiop Leighton in alluding to the 
vaunted fupernaturalifm of the religious orders, 
thus quaintly and ironically obferves : — 

u They feem to make holinefs a kind of 
impropriate good, that the common fort can 
have little fhare in almoft all piety, being ftiut 
up within cloifter walls as its only fit dwell- 
ing. Yet it hath not liked their lodging it 
feems, but is flown over the walls away from 
them, for there is little of it even there to be 
found."* 

Although the writers whofe teftimony has 
been adduced may be confidered of fufficient 
authority in affording to the world a true 
and unexaggerated character of the monaftic 
orders ; yet thefe were not the only indivi- 
duals of note, who, regardlefs of the painful 
confequences which fuch a courfe was likely 
to involve, openly and fearleflly expofed the 
abominations of monkery, and declaimed 
loudly againft the enormities perpetrated 
in the name of religion, and by thofe foi- 
difant faints whofe fan&ity was but another 
name for licentioufnefs. We find that Ro- 
bert Gofthead, bifliop of Lincoln, inveighed 
bitterly againft the corruption, lew^dnefs, 



* Life of R. Leighton, D.D. by James Aikman. 



Char a 51 er of the Monajtics. 73 

and wickednefs of the fo-called "religious 
orders " of his age. In like manner did 
Matthew Paris, Benedidtine Monk of St. 
Albans, a man juftly celebrated for his 
learning and exemplary life,* paint, in the 
livelier! colours, the libidinous and corrupt 
character of his confreres. In Italy, Arnold 
of Brefcia, a pupil of Peter Abelard, attempted 
a revolution of ecclefiaftical manners and 
abufes, for which Innocent II. had him 
baniflied into Switzerland, having been pre- 
vioufly condemned in the council of Lateran, 
a.d. 1 139. After the death of this pontiff, 
his third fucceffor, Eugene, to whom Arnold 
had alfo given caufe of complaint, ftipulated 
with the emperor Frederic I. to deliver 
Arnold into his hands \ upon which he was 
firft ftrangled, then his body was burnt, and 
his aflies thrown into theTiber, a. d. i 155. f 
William of St. Amour, a dodtor of the 
Sorbonne, a man of wonderful genius, alfo 
raifed his voice and employed his pen againft 
the whole mendicant orders collectively ; 



* He was in great favour with Henry II. and employed 
by the Pope to reform fome foreign convents. 

f Momeim's Eccles. Hift. vol. ii. p. 504. (Soames.) 
Spanheim's Eccles. Ann. 



74 Mo7iajlic Injiitutio7is. 

and in a treatife " Of the Perils of the latter 
Times " he applies the predictions of Paul, 
in 2 Tim. iii. i., as literally fulfilled in them. 
This aroufed the ire of the Dominicans, 
who ceafed not to perfecute him till Alex- 
ander IV. a.d. 1256, had his book publicly 
burnt, and the author himfelf banifhed from 
France."* Peter, of Bruges, and Henry his 
difciple, likewife railed againft clerical dere- 
liction, and afferted, among other things, that 
" Alonks ought to marry;" for which, the 
one was burnt, and the other imprifoned for 
life. To thefe might be added Nicolaus de 
Mazen, abbot of Moelk, in Auftria ; Nico- 
laus Dunkelipiihl, a profeiTor at Vienna, 
whofe labours produced fome reformatory 
difcipline in feveral convents of Swabia and 
Bavaria ; Dante, in Italy; Guido Juvenalis, 
in France, an erudite man ; and others ; 
one of the moft diftinguifhed of whom was 
John WicklifFe, rector of Lutterworth, whofe 
bones, to appeafe the revengeful difpofition of 
his enemies, were dug up and publicly con- 
fumed, a.d. 1428, by order of Martin V. in 
conjunction with the decree of the council of 



* Moflieim's Eccles. Hift. vol. ii. p. 564. ^So.imes.} 
Spanheim's Eccles. Ann. 



Character of the Monajlics. 75 

Conftance ; which iniquitous edi£t was ex- 
ecuted by Richard Fleming, bifhop of Lin- 
coln^ This is not a folitary inftance of the 
church wreaking her vengeance upon thofe 
who were bold enough to expofe her enor- 
mities, and difpute her wicked aflumptions. 
Her ftatement, that fhe is u unchanged and 
unchangeable " is true, fo far as a malignant 
fpirit is concerned. And fhe manifefted the 
fame deathlefs hatred to her confcientious 
opponents on the acceffion of Queen Mary 
to the throne of England, when, by her au- 
thority, Cardinal Pole, and other eminent di- 
vines of her communion, went to Cambridge, 
interdicted the churches where the bodies 
of Bucer and Phagius were laid, and, after 
a mock trial and blafphemous fentence, the 
remains of thefe noted reformers were dug 
up, conveyed in their coffins to the market- 
place, fet upright, bound with iron chains, 
and finally confumed ! 

From fo difgufting a portrait of the de- 
generacy and ungodly deportment of thofe 
who made a folemn profeffion, and wore the 
garb of fancSHty, it will naturally occur to 



* Moftieim's Eccles. Hift c vol. ii. p. 665. (Soames.) 
Spanheim's Eccles. Ann. 



76 Monajlic Injiitutions. 

every unprejudiced mind, that there muft be 
fomething fundamentally wrong in a church 
which could give birth to, fofter and mature, 
fuch ftiamelefs immorality. Hiftory fur- 
nifties us with numerous records of crimes, 
horrifying and revolting, committed not only 
within the filent receffes of the cloifter, but 
perpetrated vifibly, and without any defire of 
concealment, by all degrees of ecclefiaftics, 
from the humbleft monk to the loftieft dig- 
nitary \ not excepting even the Sovereign 
Pontiff who filled the chair of Peter :* and 
if hiftory be not an " old almanac," we 
muft certainly refpecT: and credit its authority. 
It prefents a melancholy picture of the un- 

* Ratherius, bifhop of Verona, fays, that the clergy- 
were in general fo immodeft, that fcarcely a prieft was 
found fit to be ordained bifhop, and fcarcely a bifhop fit to 
confer ordination. He recounts feveral mocking ftories 
refpecYmg the behaviour of ecclefiaftics, and he charges 
them principally with holding infamous converfation with 
profligate females. Pope Sergius and pope John XL, the 
latter fon of the former by his concubine Marofia, and other 
pontiffs of the fame defcription, by their own profligacy 
fet the example to the inferior clergy, of throwing off that 
mafk, which might otherwife conceal their debaucheries 
from the eyes of the world. — Rev, Mr. 0. Crolfs Inquiry, 
etc. Dublin, 1835. 

Vide Baronii Annales (Antverpio 1603). Genebrardi 
Chron. a. c. 904. (Paris, 1585.) 



Charaffier of the Monajlics. 77 

righteous living of thofe whofe peculiar duty- 
it was to practife and inculcate the pure 
precepts of chriltianity ; the darknefs, fuper- 
ftition, ignorance, and moral depravity of 
the univerfal church ; and the all but total 
extinction of true religion. And, if the 
picture be faithfully drawn, muft we not 
acknowledge — does not love for truth force 
upon us the conviction — that a reformation 
both in morals and religion was moft ur- 
gently and imperatively required ? 

So corrupted, indeed, by formal wormip 
and fuperftitious obfervances, was the pro- 
feffing church, and fo fignal was the de- 
velopement of the " myftery of iniquity " 
prior to the burfting forth of the glorious fun 
of the Reformation, that I cannot contem- 
plate the long night of Egyptian darknefs 
and ignorance, the intellectual bondage and 
fpiritual defolation, the moral depravity and 
unblufhing wickednefs, which then exifted 
in all their hideous and naked deformity, 
without feeling, as did the poet, who, when 
entering upon his furvey of the regions of 
defpair, exclaimed : — 



" Nel mezzo del cammin di noftra vita 
Mi retrovai per una felva ofcura, 



7 8 Monajiic Injiitutions. 



Che la diritta via era fmarita : 
E quanto a dir, qual' era, e cofi dura, 
Quefta felva felvaggia ed afpra e forte 
Tanto e amara che poco e piu morte." 

Dante Inferno. 

When life had laboured up her midmoft ftage, 

And, weary with her mortal pilgrimage, 

Stood in fufpenfe upon the point of Prime, 

Far in a pathlefs grove I chanced to ftray, 

Where fcarce imagination dares difplay 

The gloomy fceneiy of the favage clime. 

On the deep horrors of the tangled dale, 

With dumb difmay, the pow'rs of mem'ry dwell — 

Scenes terrible as dark impending fate." 

Boyd's Dante. 



CHAPTER V. 



Concife Hijiory of the Francifcan Order. 

u The Francifcan fraternity was early fplit into factions, 
which time only ftrengthened and rendered inveterate ; and 
thefe factions not only difturbed the peace of the church, but 
fhook even the fovereign powers and majefty of the Pontiffs 
themfelves. " — Mosheim. 

HAVE now to direft the read- 
er's attention to the celebrated 
order of monks, denominated 
Fra iicifcan,ofwhichSt. Francis 
was the diftinguifhed founder. 

An attempt to comprefs within narrowlimits 
all the ftrange incidents connected with the 
life of this extraordinary man, and the prin- 
cipal conftitutions of his fodality, would not 
be complimentary to the feveral able writers 
who have taken pains to elucidate his hiftory ; 
nor would it be doing juftice to the individual 
himfelf, whofe fingularlife hasfurnifhed them 
with fuch ample and valuable materials. So 




80 Monajlic Injiitutions. 

wonderful, however, are many of the circum- 
ftances which have occurred through his in- 
ftrumentality and that of his mendicant aflb- 
ciates, that it is quite neceffary to take a brief 
review of them, as characteriftic of the me- 
morable perfonage whofe name and fyftem 
of difcipline occupy fo prominent a place in 
the pages of hiftory. 

St. Francis was born at Affifi, in Umbria, 
a.d. 1 182. His father, who was a wealthy 
merchant, had his fon originally named John ; 
but bufinefs tranfaclions bringing the youth 
much into the fociety of Frenchmen, he ac- 
quired their language readily, and in confe- 
quence was called Francifcus. His biogra- 
phers, Bonaventura and Wadding, an Irifh 
monk, concur in reprefenting him as an 
idle, debauched, and profligate young man. 
A ferious illnefs^ induced by his irregular 
and licentious habit of life,* had well nigh 
brought him to the threfhold of the grave. 
Upon his recovery he exhibited a kind of 
religious idiotcy; and, having accidentally 
heard a fermon from the words, " Provide 
neither gold, nor filver, norbrafsinyourpurfes, 
nor fcrip for your journey," etc., he conceived 



Moflieim's Eccles. Hift. vol. ii. p. 560. (Soames.) 



The Francifcan Order. 81 

that the abfolute renunciation of all worldly- 
goods, and the confequent condition of penury, 
was the only way in which to fulfil the gofpel 
injunction. For a confiderable time he 
roamed through the country like a madman. 
On one occafion he met with a leper, and dif- 
mounting from his horfe, licked his fores and 
adminiftered to his neceffities. At another 
time, falling in with beggars, he diftributed to 
them his clothes, and covered himfelf with 
their filthy rags. He fancied that he was the 
fubjecSr. of divine vifions ; and one day, whilft 
praying near the walls of a decayed church, he 
heard a voice which faid : u Go, Francis, and 
repair my houfe which you fee is dilapidated ! " 
Accordingly he obeyed the command ; took 
a quantity of his father's merchandife, dif- 
pofed of the fame, and brought the value to 
the prieft. This tranfadtion difpleafed his 
father, who made an effort to arreft him as a 
lunatic, in which light he was confidered by 
moft of his acquaintance, although fome were 
filly enough to regard him as a faint. By a 
perfevering courfe of mendicancy he not only 
raifed money enough to repair the old church, 
but to erect two others, one of which was 
called the church of Portriuncula, near Affifi, 
where he eftabliflied himfelf and founded a 



82 a Monajiic Infkitutions. 

new monaftic aflbciation upon very ftringent 
and fomewhat novel principles ; the profeflion 
of abject poverty being a prominent feature of 
the Francifcan rule. To fuch an extreme 
was this carried, that a monk was not per- 
mitted to own even a pfalter or hymn book. 
The formation of fuch a fraternity was re- 
garded by the reigning pontiff, Innocent III., 
as admirably calculated to meet the peculiar 
exigencies of the church ; and at the council 
of Lateran, he declared his approval of it, in 
prefence of its founder. 

Two years after (a. d. 1217) Cardinal 
Ugolino, fubfequently Gregory IX., became 
patron of an order which, at its fecond general 
chapter, had five thoufand members prefent. 
Hence originated a religious brotherhood, 
that finally grew fo coloffal and powerful as 
to diflurb ftates and hurl even a pope from his 
dominions. The biographers of St. Francis 
mention, that upon one occafion, as he was 
praying for more conformity with Chrift, he 
received upon his perfon the facred ftigmatica ; 
that is, fears, or fungus flefli, reprefenting the 
five wounds of the Saviour — a deception moft 
likely got up by the monks in order to enhance 
the reputation of their order, and procure a 
larger fale of the indulgences with which they, 



The Francifcan Order. 83 

and the Dominicans, were privileged by the 
popes for their fupport — having abjured all 
earthly riches. Benedi£t XII. gave his 
fan£tion to this abfurd fable of the miraculous 
impreffment, by ordaining a feftival in com- 
memoration of the event. Francis, having 
lived as an invalid at Aflifi, for two years, died 
on the 4th of October, 1226 ) and in 1230 
he was canonized, and placed in the calendar 
of faints, by Gregory IX. 

How an order of monks fuch as the dif- 
calced or barefooted Francifcans, poffeffing 
few, if indeed any inducements to defert 
focial life, and eftablifhed on principles fo 
extremely rigorous and auftere, could have 
increafed in fuch an extenfive and rapid man- 
ner, is a fubjeft which muft affuredly pro- 
duce no fmall degree of furprife in the minds 
of thofe who have ftudied its origin, and are 
familiar with its early hiftory. Even the very 
difgrace confequent upon mendicancy, a pri- 
mary and effential part of their code, one 
fliould fuppofe, would be an impediment quite 
fufficient to check the progrefs of fuch an 
inftitution. But, as a fenfible writer juftly 
remarks, "the ecclefiaftics of that age had the 
happy art of making everything fubfervient 
to their own individual intereft, as well as to 



84 Monajiic Injlitutions. 

that peculiar eftablifhment with which they 
were connedted, that the profeflion of beg- 
gary, fo far from being looked upon as hu- 
miliatory, was regarded as an honourable, if 
not the moll honourable of all engage- 
ments."* Moreover, to fuch a degree of 
celebrity did thefe monks arrive, that they 
ruled not merely the monadic orders of their 
day, but, although it may found difcordant 
in modern ears attuned to the doctrine of 
infallibility, even the very court of Rome 
itfelf.f The pontifical affemblies, as well 



* Life of Buchanan. 

f Not only has the Roman Pontiff's authority been con- 
fidered of equal weight with that of a General Council, 
but it has fometimes been actually placed, not only above 
councils, but even the decrees of the Apoftles themfelves ! 
Andradius faith : — "Liquet eos minime erraffe, qui dicunt 
Romanum Pontificem poffe non nunquam in legibus dif- 
penfare a Paulo et primis quatuor conciliis. Minime vero 
majores noftri religione et pietate excellentes Apoftolorum 
haec et quam plurima alia decreta reflgere in animum 
induxiffent nin intellexiffent," etc. — Andrad. lib. ii., de 
Trid. Fid. 

" It is manifeft that thofe have not erred who fay, that 
the Roman Pontiff can fometimes difpenfe with obeying 
the laws of the apoftle Paul, and of the four firft Councils j 
nay, our anceftors, men of great piety and religion, have 

BROKEN AND ANNULLED MANY DECREES OF THE APOSTLES !' 

A diftinguifhed Cardinal of the Romift church writes: — 
" Si Papa erraret in praecipiendo vitia, vel prohibendo vir- 



The Francifcan Order. 85 

as the councils of the ftate, bowed alike im- 
plicitly to their dictates, and each acquiefced 
in their decifion. 

But the pinnacle of glory to which thefe 
monks attained, and the fceptre of authority 
which they fwayed, were but preludes to a 
terrible downfall ; a difafter highly aggravated 
by the eminence from which they fell, and the 
princely influence they had exercifed. Nei- 
ther the patronage of John XXII., nor their 
former popularity, could fcreen them from 
univerfal difapprobation and cenfure. Owing 
to the imperious and infolent manner in 
which, like defpotic rulers, they employed 
their power, councils had affembled in many 
kingdoms and provinces of Europe, with the 
exprefs defign of rendering every poflible op- 



tutes, teneretur Ecclefia credere vitia effe bona et virtutes 
mala, nifi vellet contra confcientiam peccare," — Bellar. L. 
iv. de Pont.f. cap. 5. 

" Should the pope err in commanding vices, and for- 
bidding virtues, the church mould be bound to believe that 
the vices were good, and the virtues bad, unlefs me would lin 
againft confcience ! " 

Again, pope Innocent III. fays : — " Secundum plenitu- 
dinem poteftatis de jure, fupra jus, porTumus difpenfare." — 
Decret. de concefs. pr abend. Tit. iii., cap. propojuit. 

" We may, according to the plenitude of our power, 
difpenfe with the law, and above the law! 0 



86 Monafiic Infkitutions. 

pofition to their proceedings, and of checking 
the progrefs of their affumed dominion. In 
like manner, the principal ecclefiaftics of the 
Univerfities of Paris and Oxford, united 
their combined and vigorous energies to 
procure the total fuppreffion of the Fran- 
cifcan order.* 

Nor did oppofition to thefe clerical defpots 
terminate here. They and their vices were 
ridiculed and expofed by various eminent 
writers ; among the moft powerful of whom 
was the celebrated and learned Buchanan, 
who, according to the teftimony of Le 
Laboureur, was himfelf once connected with 
the order. The principal works of Bucha- 
nan are the cc Somnium" " Alcoranus Fran- 
cifcanorum" and the " Francifcanus" or the 
w Francifcan the lafl: of which, together 
with the Satire of Sir David Lindfay, entitled 
" The Three Eftates," was made the fub- 
jecT: of a drama. The former was acted 
before James V., and the latter in prefence 
of the king, queen, and courtiers at Linlith- 
gow, on the feftival of the Epiphany, a.d. 

Thofe individuals who had the moral refo- 
lution to make an expofe of the depravity 



♦Wood's Antiq. Oxon. torn. i. p. 150. 



The Francifcan Order. 87 

and ungodlinefs of the Francifcan monks, 
experienced, for the moft part, the dire effects 
of their deep-rooted malevolence. The un- 
happy friar Killore fell a holocauft at their 
demonial mrine ; while others, among whom 
was Buchanan, were condemned to the In- 
quifition. 

Buchanan, accompanied by eleven others, 
attended the celebrated Govea to the Uni- 
verfity of Coimbra, in Portugal, in the year 
1547, at tms t ™ e patronifed by John III., 
the exifling monarch. Being fufpected of 
favouring the principles of the Reformation, 
he, with two members of the Univerfity, 
was feized and brought before the tribunal of 
the Inquifition. Before this mock juftice- 
feat he was privately accufed of having eaten 
flefh-meatduring Lent, of vilifying the monks, 
and of being altogether a dangerous and un- 
fafe perfon ; whereupon he was caft into one 
of thofe infernal dungeons — upon whofe por- 
tals may fitly be infcribed the epigraph of 
Dante — 

" Per me fi va nella citta dolente : 
Per me li va nelF eterno dolore : 
Per me fi va tra la perduta genta." 
" Through me you pafs into the city of woe : 
Through me you pafs into eternal pain : 
Through me among the people loft for aye." 

Canto iii. i. 



88 Monajiic Injlitutions. 

There can be no doubt but that the Por- 
tuguefe ecclefiaftics had heard of the fevere 
attacks made upon the monaftic orders by 
Buchanan ; and, therefore, they did not let 
the opportunity efcape for gratifying their 
vindictive feelings. This perfecuted indivi- 
dual, although confined for nearly two years 
in the Inquifition, and clofely ftiut up for 
feveral months in a monaftery, in order that 
he might be edified by the faintly deportment 
of its inmates, and thereby be induced to 
abandon his heretical opinions, yet knew 
not why he was deprived of his liberty, or 
what ails of his drew down upon him the 
fierce difpleafure of his favage perfecutors. 
Happily, however, he efcaped the rack and 
the flames; and on being finally liberated, 
with the confent of the king, he embarked 
from Lifbon for England — leaving, with 
feelings of inexpreffible delight, a country 
whofe very atmofphere was impregnated with 
the atrocities of its inhabitants ; and where 
men, profefling to be difpenfers of the oracles 
of God, and upholders of the chriftian faith, 
were, in truth, nothing lefs than propagators 
of the " doctrines of demons," and fupporters 
of the impofitions of Satan. — 

M Monftrum horrendum informe horribile ingens." 



The Francifcan Order. 89 

But to refume. The moft inveterate ene- 
mies which the Francifcans had to contend 
with were, ftrange to fay, the monks of St. 
Dominic ! * 

" When Greek met Greek, then came the tug of war." 

There is fo much impiety connected with 
the hiftory of the Francifcans, fo much 
cruelty with that of the Dominicans, and fo 
much flagitious and blafphemous impofture 
with both, that the founders of thefe feveral 
orders can hardly be feen in their true cha- 
racters. u Thefe two moft powerful orders," 
writes the hiftorian, " contended with each 
other for precedence ; and attacked and war- 
red upon each other in their publications, and 
with invectives and criminations. Attempts 
were frequently made to ftop thefe conten- 
tions ; but the fire-brand that kindled them 
could never be extinguifhed." f 

Thofe fiery bigots, who were the chief 
actors in the Inquifitional courts, and the 
ftern difpenfers of ecclefiaftical rigour, pur- 
fued the Francifcans with that peculiar fero- 



* Painters reprefent him by a dog with a fire-brand in 
its mouth, owing to a dream which his mother had when 
enceinte. 

f Moiheim's Eccles. Hift. vol. ii. p. 555-6. (Soames.) 



90 Monajiic Inftitutions . 

city for which they were proverbial, until 
their implacable refentment became fome- 
what abated by configning to the flames fe- 
veral of thofe unfortunate beings who were 
the objects of their difpleafure. So much 
for the unity of the Papal church and her 
ecclefiaftical orders ! " Papal uniformity," 
fays a talented writer, " is like the hard and 
glittering furface of an ice-bound chaos, 
dazzling without, but imprifoning all with- 
in." 5 * And truly there is a union in igno- 
rance, as all things are confounded together 
in the dark ! 

At length a fchifm, fraught with direful 
confequences, took place in this diftinguifhed 
fraternity. The primary caufe which led 
to fo fingular a refult, was a difference of 
opinion refpecting the particular habit or 
drefs of the order, and the extent to which 
its worldly pofleffions mould be carried. 

Frequent attempts were made by fuccef- 
five pontiffs to mitigate the feverity of the 
conftitutions of St. Francis, which were ex- 
tremely rigid with regard to the polTefTions 
of the monks. But thefe attempts proved 



* Rev. James Godkin's Guide from the Church of 
Rome. 



The Franctfcan Order. 91 

unfuccefsful. The order, however, in a fliort 
time, became divided into two great parties. 
The one oppofed the jurifdi&ion of the 
pope ; the other received all his decrees, and 
fubmitted to his authority. The former 
were denominated Anti-papal Francifcans, 
and confifted of the Fratricelli, or Minorites, 
the Tertiaries, or Beghards, and the Spiri- 
tuals. The latter were ftyled the Brethren 
of the Community. This clafs having the 
advantage of fuperior numbers, laboured very 
zealoufly to exterminate the Spirituals. Cle- 
ment V. being then pope, was defirous to 
effect a reconciliation between parties fo 
oppofed ; and for this purpofe he iflued the 
bull, " Exivi de paradifo" which enjoined 
the ftri&eft poverty on the whole order, 
and prohibited the poffeffion of any property, 
except what was indifpenfable for their im- 
mediate wants ; although at the fame time, 
it permitted thofe of the order who refided 
in diftri£ts or localities where the neceffaries 
of life were not attainable, to ere£t ftore- 
houfes, or granaries, to which they could 
refort in times of fcarcity. This bull pleafed 
the French brethren extremely well \ but as 
the Italian monks were determined to remain 
obftinate, they refufed to be ruled by the 



92 Monajiic Injlituiions. 

pope's mandate ; and in order to fet them- 
felves at liberty from the power and authority 
of their fpiritual rulers, fome of them eva- 
cuated their country, and went to Sicily ; 
while others were fent into exile by Cref- 
centius, general of the order.* 

After much labour and repeated endea- 
vours on the part of Clement to fubdue the 
turbulent fpirit of the French Francifcans, 
he finally fucceeded. But the tranquillity 
which enfued, unhappily, terminated with 
his life. For after the deceafe of this pontiff*, 
the Francifcan war broke out afrefh. Nor 
was there a period fince the firfl introduction 
of the fchifm, when the interefts of the two 
adverfe bodies, the Spirituals and the Bre- 
thren of the Community, were fo warmly 
upheld. It is truly horrifying to contem- 
plate the dire calamities which followed. So 
revolting are they to the beft feelings of 
human nature, that we would be difpofed to 
queftion their reality, did not the indubitable 
teftimony of hiftory place them upon record 
as facts which cannot be difputed. 

Although papal authority and influence 



* Boulay. Hift. Acad. Paris, torn. iv. p. 152. Moiheim's 
Eccles. Hift. vol. ii. p. 567. (Soames.) 



The Francifcan Order. 93 

were vigoroufly employed to quench the 
flame of diffenfion among the two generic 
fe£tions of this order, it but burned the 
brighter, and blazed forth with increafed 
ftrength and fury, in proportion to the efforts 
made to fupprefs it. At length an opportu- 
nity was afforded for giving vent to a rancour 
long-cherifhed and deep-rooted, and for ex- 
hibiting it in all its fiendifh afperity. After 
a well concodted confpiracy, one hundred 
and twenty of the Spirituals fuddenly came 
down upon, and moft violently attacked the 
Brethren of the Community in their con- 
vents at Narbonne and Beziers, and having 
expelled them from their habitations by force 
of arms, they elected new prefiding officers, 
caft off their well-made garments, and affumed 
thofe that were fhort, narrow, and ill-fhaped, 
as being more confiftent with the rule of their 
founder.* 

So outrageous an occurrence compelled 
John XXII., who was Clement's fucceffor, 
to iffue a brief, thereby to preferve the public 
peace ; as from the fa£t of the citizens of 
Narbonne favouring the Spirituals, the pro- 



* a. d. 1 314. Molheim's Eccles. Hift. vol. ii. p. 668. 
(Soames.) 



94 Monaftic Injlitutions . 

bable refult would be riot, confufion, and 
diforder. At length this pope fucceeded in 
abolifhing fome of the leffer diftin£tions of 
the order ; and after advifing the king of 
Sicily to expel from his dominions the Spiri- 
tuals, who reforted thither for felf-defence, 
he commanded the French Spirituals to at- 
tend a council to be held at Avignon, and 
required that they mould lay afide their fliort, 
ftraight habits, with the fmall hoods. 

The papal injunction was univerfally ac- 
quiefced in, with the exception of twenty- four 
brethren, and their leader, Francis Bernard 
Delitiofi, who fanatically afferted, that the 
gofpel of Chrift was not more facred, or 
more to be obeyed, than the rules of St. 
Francis \ that the pontiffs who permitted the 
order to erect flore-houfes and granaries, had 
finned moft grievoufly ; and that requiring 
a change of drefs different from that pre- 
ferred by the founder, added fearfully to 
their weight of guilt ! Hereupon, pope John, 
becoming exafperated to the higheft degree, 
anathematized thefe diffentients, and ordered 
that they mould be puniflied as heretics. 
Accordingly Delitiofi was apprehended, but 
ultimately died in confinement ; while four 
of his followers were condemned to be burnt 



The Francifcan Order. 95 

at Marfeilles.* Thefe circumftances occa- 
fioned a revival of malignity againft the pope 
and his abettors, by the Spirituals, who de- 
nounced John XXII. as " Antichrift," and 
the " Man of Sin," and maintained that he 
mould be depofed for having " flied the blood 
of the faints." 

Such an afpecl: of affairs could not long 
continue without a change, as each party 
was ftriving for fupremacy. For either the 
Spirituals muft be the rulers, or the Roman 
pontiff's decrees muft be obeyed. The 
pope, therefore, perceiving that his authority 
was difregarded by thefe obftinate and tena- 
cious monks, and being highly offended that 
the term " Antichrift " was applied to him 
— however deferving of the appellation f — 



* a.d. 13 1 8. Argentre, Colledio Judicior de novis 
error, torn. i. p. 294. 

f Pope Gregory the Great (about the year 594), in 
one of his letters to John Bifhop of Conftantinople, faid : — 
u Quifquis Je univerfalem Sacerdotem vocat in elatione fua 
Antkhriftum pr<zcurrit." " Whoever in his pride calls 
himfelf univerfal prieft, is Antichrift's harbinger." Yet 
in a few years after (a.d. 606), his own fucceffor afTumes 
this very title, under the name of Boniface III., by the aid 
of the Emperor Phocas. Cardinal Baronius thus mentions 
the fact: " Phocas iratus Ciraco Epifcopo Conftantinopoli- 
tano adjudicavit titulum CEcumenici Pontifici Romano foli." — 



96 Monaftic Injiitutions. 

delivered them over to the tender mercies 
of their moft obdurate enemies, the Domi- 
nicans, who were fpecially authorized and 
empowered to apprehend them wherever they 
may be found. Thefe u indefatigable fol- 
diers," we need fcarcely inform the reader, 
executed the papal command with prompti- 
tude and rigour. Accordingly, feveral hun- 
dreds of the devoted Francifcans were con- 
demned to the ftake in France, Italy, Spain, 
and Germany. 

The Spirituals became again aroufed in 
confequence of the martyrdom of their 
brethren ; and having fecured the patronage 
of Lewis of Bavaria, who greatly affifted the 
promotion of their defigns, they fucceeded, 
by repeated intrigues, in perfecuting the 



(Bar. ad a. d. 606.) " Phocas being incenfed againft 
Ciriacus, bifhop of Constantinople, who had aflumed the 
title, granted the title, Sovereign Pontiff, to the Roman 
Bimop." Roger Hoveden writes : " That Abbot Johachim, 
in converfing with Richard I. of England, and Philip II. of 
France, on Antichrift, faid : c Quod jam natus eft in Civitate 
Romana et in Stede Apoftolica Sublimabitur c That already 
he was in Rome, and mould be lifted up to the apoftolical 
chair.'" (Hoved. Annal. Poft. in Rich. I. p. 681.) And 
St. Bernard faid, " That the popes were not the minifters 
of Chrift, and that the Apocalyptic beaft occupied the chair 
of St. Peter." (Uffer. de Chrift. Eccl. Sur. et Stat. c. vii. 
fees. 5 & 6.) 



The Francifcan Order. 97 

Dominicans, and depriving John XXII. of 
the popedom. After the death of this pon- 
tiff, fucceeding popes endeavoured to recon- 
cile thefe two hoftile fa£Hons ; but neither 
edidts, bulls, nor inquifitorial punifhments, 
could effeft the defired union. At length, 
after much entreaty, a divifion of the order 
into two bodies was unanimoufly agreed 
upon. The one was denominated the Con- 
ventual Brethren, and the other, the Brethren 
of the Obfervation. Thus, as has been ably 
remarked, " unity being the boafted palla- 
dium of the Romift Church, it is necefTary 
that fhe fhould fee how weak is her battle 
fteed, her invulnerable Achilles." 

Francis was regarded by his order as a 
fecond Chrift, and in every refpe£t equal to 
the Divine founder of the church. Thefe 
opinions were promulgated in a work, en- 
titled, " The Golden Book of the Conform- 
ities of the Holy Father St. Francis, with the 
Life of our Saviour Jefus Chrift written 
in 1383, by Bartholomew Albizi, a Francif- 
can monk, of Pifa.* Therein the author 

* Lib. aureus, infcrip. lib. conform, vite beati ac feraphici 
patris Francifci ad vitam Jefu Chrifti Domini noftri, correc- 
tus et illuftrat. Bononiae, I 5 90. -^Nouveau Difiionnaire Hiji, 
CnU torn. i. apud art, Albizi. p. 217. 

H 



9'8 Monajiic Inftitutions. 

falutes Francis with a prayer, fuch as is cuf- 
tomarily addreffed to the Redeemer ; firft, 
prefumptuoufly calling him " typical Jefus," 
and then befeeching him to cure the fins, to 
heal the fpiritual maladies of fouls, and finally 
to give unto them a place in the kingdom of 
heaven. # He alio enumerates forty points of 
refemblance between Chrift and St. Francis, 
in which the marks of wounds on his perfon 
are included ; but thefe were multiplied in 
165 1, in a work written by a Spanifh monk, 
to four thoufand ! Even Pierre d'Olive, a 
native of Serignan, in Languedoc, who had 
acquired a mining reputation for his learning, 
fan£Hty, and writings, and who fharply and 
openly cenfured the corruption of the church 
of Rome, in his " Poftilla," partook fo much 
of the extravagances of the age in which he 
lived, as to believe that Francis was v/holly 
and entirely transformed into the perfon of 
Chrift ! f The bones of this weak enthufiaft 



* Francifce Jefu typice dux formaq. 5 minorum, per te 
Chrifti mirifice funt gefta, et donor. Mala pater egregie 
propelle animorum fedis nobis perpetuas da regni fuperno- 
rura.-^««z;. Di&. Hift. Chnft. 

-f- Totum Chrifto conriguratum. — Litera Magljirorum de 
Pofiilla Fratris P. Joh. 0/ivi, in Baluzii Mljcel. tom. i. 
p. 213. 



The Francifcan Order. 99 

were raifed by order of John XXII., and 
publicly burnt with his writings, in 1325.* 

I cannot more fitly clofe the prefent 
fubje£i, than by referring the reader to what 
a reformed Romift prieft writes refpe£ling 
thefe mendicant monks. He obferves, that 
their " aufterity, mortification, and holinefs 
were merely exterior ; for the coarfe, dirty, 
difgufting habit and cowl of the filthy Fran- 
cifcan, ferved to cover an indulged and well- 
pampered body. And thefe worthies were 
accuftomed to riot, and 4 drown dull care' in 
their jovial convents as well as the lord of 
the foil, or the pope himfelf. As to piety or 
edification, their cloifters exhibited quite the 
contrary. They were generally fcenes of 
licentioufnefs, contention, mutual jealoufy, 
bickering and diforder. And even at this 
day there is fcarcely to be found a fingle man 
of fpirit or talent in the community of thefe 
ftupid, ignorant, worthlefs, over-bearing 
drones." f This fevere and cutting rebuke 
is not ill-beftowed, judging from my own 
perfonal knowledge of members of the Fran- 
cifcan fraternity. 

* Raynald, ad. An. 1325, fe&. xx. 
-f* Papal Impofitions and Monaftic Intrigue portrayed, by 
the Rev. M. Brenan. 



CHAPTER VI. 



Legendary W n tings. 

" The Greeks led the way in committing to writing 
whatever reports were in circulation among the vulgar in 
regard to more ancient times, without difcrimination ; and 
hence originated thofe medleys of fables, which the Latins 
afterwards fo greedily caught up and retained/' — Mosheim. 

AINT Chryfoftom obferves 
that," a fine lie is a fine thing !" 
a principle which, if not {trictly 
correct in morals, has never- 
thelefs been very generally adopted by Me- 
taphraftes, Bollandus, and contemporary 
writers of the fame theological fchool. One 
great object: in view was to uphold and extend 
the popularity of the feveral religious orders. 
And how could this have been better or 
more fuccefsfully accomplifhed, than by 
publishing fictitious biographies of fome of 
the fraternity, and therein recording the du- 
bious aufterity of their lives and the numerous 




Legendary Writings. 101 

miracles they had performed ? The multi- 
tude were but too eager to receive, and too 
willing to accredit, all that interefted parties 
had averred concerning Brother Bonaventura 
or Father Paul : and no matter how loofely 
or irreligioufly they may have lived, they 
were fure after death to be lauded as patterns 
of the fevereft virtue and the moft eminent 
fan&ity. This pious fraud was partly occa- 
fioned in confequence of premiums being 
offered to thofe who, upon the deceafe of a 
brother, fhould produce the moft elaborate 
and exaggerated hiltory of the holy life he led, 
and the extraordinary wonders he effected. 
Hence monkifti biographers fet no bounds 
either to the fervour of their defcription or 
their violation of truth. And as one order 
vied with the other in feeking the popular 
apotheofis, fo they laboured to rival each other 
in the number and holinefs of their fainted 
brethren. The confequence is, that in the 
whole Atta Sanfforum fcarce one individual 
is recorded who did not belong to fome 
religious fraternity. The abfurdities related 
of thefe faints baffle all defcription. Only 
imagine our being informed of St. Benedict, 
that his mill, when he went from it to his 
devotions, would turn of its own accord ; 



io2 Monastic Injiitutions. 

and that when a monk inquifitively peeped 
through a crevice to view the miracle, he 
was immediately ftruck blind for his pre- 
emption ! * Superftition and ignorance fo 
obtained that there was a kind of neceffity, 
fo to fpeak, for fuch legendary tales ; as 
no faint could be eftimated by the common 
people, if his life was not read, or elfe mira- 
cles recorded of him.f The monks, from 
felf-interefted motives, adminiftered to the 
popular tafle, however perverted ; and of 
which they themfelves had been the main 
creators. Sometimes thefe godly men 
would perform dexterous and cunning feats 
which, to the inexperienced obferver, ap- 
peared miraculous. But they were fimply 
effected by natural phenomena. For ex- 
ample, Mandubnauc, an Irifh monk, of Rofe- 
valley, carried off the bees of that place to 
Ireland, on board the (hip in which he em- 
barked ; but, of courfe, this plaufible miracle 
was accomplifhed by fecreting the queen 
bee. J When impofitions were really prac- 
tifed the deceivers did not always efcape re- 



* Mabillon's Acla San&cr. Ord. Bened. torn. iii. p. 195, 
f Script, p. Bed. 168 b. 
\ Ang. Sacr. ii. 636. 



Legendary Writings. 103 

tribution, however fuccefsfully they may have 
eluded detection. Perat relates, that there 
was a miraculous fountain at Moiffac, to 
which numerous lepers came to bathe, and 
they were reftored to health by the efficacy 
of fome faint whofe relics were depofited in 
the abbey. Unfortunately, the monks had 
the difeafe communicated to them by the 
lepers, and a great many died, fo that they 
had to {hut up the fountain for their repofe 
and health ! * 

" Alas, what follies," fays Erafmus, com- 
menting on the abufes which crept into the 
church, " follies at which even I myfelf can 
fcarcely help blufhing ! Do we not fee 
each country laying claim to its particular 
demi-god ? Each mifery has its faint and its 
candle. This one relieves you in tooth- 
ache; that one gives affiftance at child-birth ; 
a third reitores your ftolen goods ; a fourth 
faves you in fnipwreck ; and a fifth keeps 
watch over your flocks. Some of thefe 
are all-powerful in many things at once. 
This is particularly the cafe with the Virgin, 
the mother of God, to whom the vulgar 
attribute almoft more than to her Son. In 



* Chronique notices, et fupr. vii. 12. 



104 Mmiaftic Injiitutions. 

the midft of all thefe follies, if fome odious 
fage arife,and, giving a counter note, exclaim, 
(as in truth he may,) c You will not perifh 
miferably if you live as chriftians. You will 
redeem your fins, if to the money which you 
give you add hatred of the fins themfelves, 
tears, vigils, prayers, failings, and a thorough 
change in your mode of life. Yon faint will 
befriend you if you imitate his life.' If fome 
fage, I fay, charitably duns fuch words into 
their ears, Oh ! of what felicity does he not 
deprive their fouls, and into what trouble, 
what defpondency, does he not plunge them ! 
The mind of man is fo conftituted, that im- 
pofture has a much ftronger hold upon it 
than truth. If there is any faint more fabu- 
lous than another, for inftance, a St. George, 
a St. Chriftopher, or a St. Barbara, you will 
fee them adored with much greater devotion 
than St. Peter, St. Paul, or Chrift himfelf."* 
The poifon fo infidioufly inftilled into 
the minds of the credulous devotees of the 
Romift church, under pretence of adminif- 
tering to them edifying and pious inftru£rion, 
may be extracted from the following fele£t 
flowers, culled from the garden of fcholaftic 
theology : — 



* Eccomium Morias, op. iv. pp. 444 — 450. 



Legendary Writings. 105 



In the " Conftitutions" of the abbot Bene- 
di£t we read : that after fupper the brethren 
were to aflemble, and fome one of them was 
to read aloud from the Collations of Caffian, 
or the Lives of the Fathers, or fome other 
edifying book, but not the Pentateuch, nor 
the other books of the Old Teftament ; as this 
famous man was of opinion that it would 
not be profitable for perfons of ordinary 
underftanding to hear them.* Such a mode 
of infufing into weak minds her deleterious 
teaching, is quite in character with a church 
that will not bear the light, nor allow her 
doctrines to be brought to the bar of Scrip- 
ture or reafon. She opens wide to the en- 
thufiaftic gaze of her votaries the productions 
of heated imaginations and fertile fancies, 
replete with all kinds of delufive vanities and 



* Mais pourquoi defendre la lecture de ces livres avant 
complenes ? C'eft apparemment parce qu'il s'y rencontre 
certaines hiftoires qui peuvent laifler dans l'efprit des im- 
preflions qui pourroient revenir et inquieter les Religieux 
pendant le fommeil. Peut-etre, aufli parce que ces hiftoires 
des guerres de Jofue, des Juges, et des Rois frappent trop 
vivement l'imagination, et remuent trop les pafiions. C'eft, 
dit on, pour cette derniere raifon, qu' Ulphilas, Eveque des 
Goths, ne voulut pas traduire en fa langue les Livres des 
Rois, de peur d'allumer de plus en plus la parlion de ces 
peuples, qui n'etoit deja que trop grande pour la guerre. — 
Calmet. 



106 Monajlic Inftitutions . 

dangerous deceits, and clofes on them the 
word of God ; and uttering an anathema, 
from which there lies no appeal, againft all 
who would prefume to open its illuminated 
pages, or judge of its contents, flie feals it up 
for ever from their view ; # aflerting, that it 
is dark and obfcure, and unprofitable for the 
people. f 

As another fpecimen of legendary lite- 
rature, I infert a curious ftory from the 
writings of a diftinguifhed modern prelate 
and faint : — " It is related, that Jane, the 
venerable fifter of Jefus and Mary, of the 
order of St. Francis, while fhe was on one 
occafion meditating on the infant Jefus 
perfecuted by Herod, heard a loud noife, 
as if fome one were purfued by armed 
foldiers. A moft beautiful infant, over- 
whelmed with affliction, and flying from his 



* Prohibemus etiam, ne libros Veteris Teftamenti aut 
Novi, laici permittantur habere ; nifi forte pfalterium, vel 
breviarium pro diviniis officiis, aut haras beatas Mariae, ali- 
quis ex devotione habere velit. Sed ne praemiffos libros 
habeant in vulgari tranflatos, arftiflime inhibemus. — Conc'il. 
Tokfan. P. Grejcry IX. an. ch. 1229. Phil. Labbae'iet Gab. 
CcJJ'artii, torn. xi. pars. 1. Lutetide PariJiorum y 167 1. 

f Cone. Trid. Sefs. iv. Decret. de Can, Scrip. Bellar. de 
verbo Dei, lib. iv. cap. 3. Ind. libr. prohibit. Regula iv. 



Legendary Writings. 107 

enemies, inftantly appeared, and faid to her, 
c My dear lifter Jane, affift and fave me ! I 
am Jefus of Nazareth, and am flying away 
from finners who feek to take away my life, 
and perfecute me with more cruelty than 
Herod did. Do you fave me !' " # 

The following circumftance is recorded of 
St. Philip Nerius, founder of the Congregation 
ofPriefts: — "About the year 1555, when 
Philip, who had many followers, journeyed 
to the place where are the baths of Diocle- 
tian, he faw ftanding upon a wall, which had 
fallen down from age, the devil, in the form 
of a man ; and when he obferved him more 
clofely, he beheld him at one time appear as 
a youth, and prefently afterwards as an old 
man. Hence difcovering the tricks of the 
devil, he ordered him in the name of Chrift 
to reveal himfelf. Overcome by this, the 
evil one betook himfelf to flight ; and as he 
departed he filled the place with fo offenfive 
a fmell, that even the beafts could not tole- 
rate it, and thus made it evident to Philip and 
the other fpectators who he was."f 



* Ap. P. Genov. Dol. di Maria. — Liguori's Dis. p. 153. 
f Ada San&orum Maii., torn. vi. Antverpiae, 1688. Die 
Vigeiima Sexta Maii. 



108 Monajiic Injittutions. 

In the " Life of St. Andrew Salus," we 
are prefented with a ftill more ludicrous 
treat : — " When it was dark, and Andrew, 
who was watching about the middle of the 
night, fecretly offered up in the fanctuary of 
his heart prayers and vows to God and the 
bleffed martyr, a devil fuddenly came to him, 
furrounded with many other devils, and bear- 
ing in his hand an axe ; whilft of the other 
devils fome were furnifhed with daggers, 
others with clubs, fome with fwords and 
lances, others with ropes, and all fought under 
that dragon or ferpent who was the com- 
mander, about whom they frequently affem- 
bled to the difmay of the bleffed Andrew. 
Attended, therefore, with thefe companions, 
and raifing a loud fhout, that moft wicked 
devil, who affumed the form of an iEthiop, 
rufhed upon the faint with great fury, as if 
about to ftrike him with the axe which he held 
in his hand. But the bleffed youth, raifing his 
hands to the Lord, with many tears, preferred 
the following petition, c Sanfte Joannes tbeo- 
loge^ opitulare mihi!' c O holy John, the 
theologian, fuccour me ! ' Immediately it 
thundered on high, and there were voices, as 
if proceeding from a crowd. And behold an 
old man appeared, remarkable by the great- 



1 



Legendary Writings. 109 

nefs of his body and eyes, and rather bald, 
with his face fhiningabove thefun,furrounded 
with a great multitude, to whom he faid in 
an angry tone, c fliut the doors, for no one 
lhall efcape from our hands.' And all the 
Moors being thus (hut in, one of them whif- 
peredin the ear of his companions, c Va nobis , 
quia "Joannes ille, ut vehemens imprimis ejt y 
gravijjima nobis , torment a infliget 9 c Woe to 
us, for that John, who is a moft violent fel- 
low, will inflidr. upon us the moft acute tor- 
ments.' But that venerable old man, when 
at his command his companions had taken 
off the chain from the bleffed Andrew's neck, 
and had given it to him, going to the outer 
door, ftood there, and ordered them to bring 
to him the Moors, one by one. Then he 
ordered the firft to be extended on the 
ground, and he tripled the bleffed Andrew's 
chain, and thus inflidled nearly one hundred 
blows upon the wretch, who cried out, after 
the fafhion of a man, c Mercy, mercy, mercy ! ' 
When he had done this, he ordered another 
to be extended, who was treated precifely in 
the fame manner. Meanwhile the bleffed 
Andrew, when he heard this pitiable cry for 
mercy, could not help laughing ! 'But when 
they were difmiffed thus beaten, the com- 



no Monajiic Injiitutions. 

panions of John cried out faying to each of 
them, c Depart and tell thofe things, if you 
will, to your father Satan.'"* 

" In the c Ciftercian Chronicles' it is re- 
lated that, in paffing through a wood, a monk 
of Brabente, who was travelling on Chrift- 
mas-night, heard a noife which refembled the 
groans of a new-born infant. He went to 
the place from whence the cries proceeded^ 
and faw a beautiful babe in the midft of the 
fnow, trembling with cold and bathed in tears. 
Touched with pity, the religious inftantly 
difmounted, and approaching the infant, faid : 
c O, my child ! why are you fo abandoned 
in this fnow, to weep and die ?' The infant 
anfwered : c Alas ! how can I but weep 
when I fee myfelf fo deferted by all, and find 
that no one receives, or takes compaflion on 
me?' After thefe words the infant difappeared, 
giving the religious to underftand, that by 
this vifion he wifhed to reprove the ingrati- 
tude of men, who, while they fee him born 
in a cave for their fake, leave him to weep 
without pity for his fufferings." f 

I have now to direfl: the reader's attention 



* Collarium ad Diem 28. Mail. Vita S. Andreae Sail, 
f St. Liguori's Dis. and Med. trans, from the Italian. 



Legendary Writings. in 



to a remarkable incident in the life of the 
abbefs St. Therefa, a Spanifli lady of noble 
birth, as recorded by herfelf. In her auto- 
biography, a work ftamped with the high ap- 
proval of the College of Cenfors, (he ftates, 
that on one occafion, while performing her 
wonted devotions, me was, by fome fuper- 
natural agency fuddenly thruft into hell, the 
entrance to which me defcribes as refembling 
that of an oven. She continues her ftrange 
narrative in a mingled ftrain of the melan- 
choly and the ridiculous ; and concludes by 
affirming, that fhe pofitively laboured under 
no delufion, but was really in the dark prifon 
of Hades, and that during her detention me 
endured fuch excruciating agony, as no hu- 
man language could defcribe, or mortal 
tongue utter. After the liberation of this 
fainted heroine from the regions of defpair, 
feveral phyficians who examined her perfon, 
gave their teftimony to the peculiar phyfiolo- 
gical change which was wrought on her body, 
by means of fome unknown torture. Much 
doubt, however, prevailed at the time, as to 
the certainty of Therefa's ftatements. How- 
ever, all incredulity became finally removed ; 
and bimops, cardinals, and popes, received 
the entire tale, as a truth worthy of being 



ii2 Monajiic Injtitutions. 

accredited. And to complete the farce, the 
deluded fubject of this famous impofture was 
actually canonized and declared a faint ! 

The " Life of St. Therefa, written by her- 
felfj" from which I have gleaned the preced- 
ing myth, is a production of high repute, 
although, ftrange to fay, but few copies are 
extant in this country; the caufe of which 
is fufficiently obvious not to require explana- 
tion. I well remember that when a novice 
I was prohibited from perufing this book, 
notwithstanding my ardent defire to be en- 
riched by its lore ; poflibly, as thofe who had 
the refponfibility of my training confidered 
that, at fo early a ftage of my noviciate, it 
would be productive of evil rather than good 
for me to fcan its pages or learn its contents. 
Thus my acquaintance with Therefa's life 
was referved for a more remote period, when 
I mould become fully indoctrinated into all 
the abfurdities, myfteries, myfticifms, and 
deceits of my profeffion. 

I mail now furnilh the reader with a nar- 
rative of an eftatica, the fubject of which 
was St. Rita, of Roccha Porrenna Caffia, 
in Umbria, a nun of the Auguftinian order. 
The account is taken from the Roman 
Breviary; a confiderable portion of which 



Legendary Writings. 113 

monks and priefts are obliged, under pain of 
incurring the fevereft cenfures of the church, 
to recite daily for their fpiritual edification 
and inftru£tion :— 

" On a certain day, whilft the faint was 
more earneftly praying to the image of Chrift 
hanging from the crofs, a thorn from the 
crown of the crucifix was fo ftruck through 
her forehead, that me fuffered an incurable 
wound till her death ; from which, in addi- 
tion to her keeneft fenfe of pain, a foul 
corruption iffued. From whence, left it 
mould excite difguft in the fitters, me lived 
a reclufe with God. But in the fecular 
year, being forbidden by Antiftita to go to 
Rome with the other fitters on account of 
the deformity of the ulcer, me grew well on 
a fudden upon wiping the wound, which 
however on her return home broke out again. 
After fome time, being attacked with heavy 
ficknefs, me bore it moft patiently for four 
years, at which time a blooming rofe from 
a fmall garden, in a very rough winter, and 
two very frefh figs were brought to her. 
Now being near her death, fhe heard Chrift 
the Lord, together with the blelTed Virgin, 
calling her to the kingdom of heaven. And 
fo, having received all the facraments of the 
1 



1 1 4 Monajlic Inftitutions . 

church, me flept in the Lord, on the eleventh 
of the kalends of June, in the year after the 
birth of Chrift, 1443. Her body, to this 
day uncorrupted, fragrant with the fweeteft 
odour, is pioufly wormipped. Urban VIII. 
added her to the number of the faints, con- 
fpicuous by her miracles before and after 
her death." * 

The following amufing anecdote of a 
fatanic apparition being vanquifhed by the 
abbot, St. Walthen, is quoted from the Afta 
Sanftorum : — 

" When upon a certain occafion St. 
Walthen flood praying before the great altar, 
with his eyes and hands raifed to heaven, 
the evil fpirit transfigured himfelf into many 
fhapes. He firft ran about the pavement in 
the form of a moufe, playing many antics ; 
afterwards in the fhape of a grunting pig ; 
afterwards in the form of a black dog, bark- 
ing; afterwards of a howling wolf; and 
laftly, of a roaring, long-horned bull. But 
the faint caufed all thefe illufory forms to 
vanifh, by making the fign of the crofs. At 
laft, that fpirit, who has a thoufand artifices, 
and who in a thoufand ways endeavours to 



* Rom. Brev. Vern. Par. p. 735. Ed. Lifb. 1786. 



Legendary Writings. 115 

difturb quiet hearts, exhibited himfelf in the 
form of a great foldier in armour, fitting 
upon the back of a horrible horfe with a 
whale's hide, which emitted fire and fmoke 
from its noftrils and mouth, and fhook his 
lance againft the man who was praying. 
The faint jumping up as faft as he could by 
the impulfe of the Spirit, and going to the 
altar, reverentially took up the ivory pix,* 
which contained the holy body of the Lord, 
and figning himfelf with it, and running like 
a fecond David againft the infernal Goliath, 
and inventing a new name for him^ under 
the dictation of the Spirit, faid : — - c Behold, 
O execrable moufe, O terrible foldier, thou 
fatellite of Satan, thy Judge is about to fend 
thee into hell : wait for him if thou dareft ! ' 
Overcome by this fpeech, the infernal horfe- 
man difappeared." f 

We are likewife informed that, on one 
occafion, when St. Dominic was " fitting at 
a window with many of his brethren, and 
was preaching to the fifterhood, the enemy 
of mankind, in the likenefs of a fparrow, 



* The veffel wherein the confecrated wafer is taber- 
nacled. 

f Acta San&orum. Vita S. Waltheni Abbatis. Dei 
Tertia Augufti, torn. i. p. 264. 



1 1 6 Monajlic Inflitutions. 

flying over the lifters in the air, but fo near 
the ground that you might lay hold of him, 
interrupted the preaching, which when the 
faint perceived, he faid to fifter Maximilla, 
c Rife and lay hold of him, and bring him to 
me.' She rifing took him without any dif- 
ficulty, and gave him through the window to 
the holy man. But he began haftily to pluck 
his feathers off, faying, c O thou enemy ! 
O thou enemy ! ' And when he had plucked 
all his feathers off, the devil meanwhile 
crying out lamentably, and all thofe prefent 
laughing at him, Dominic caft him out, fay- 
ing, c Depart, thou enemy of the human 
race, fly now, if thou canft ! * 

" It happened there alfo, that this man of 
God, who had watched till the middle of the 
night in prayer, departing from the church, 
wrote by candlelight, fitting at the head 
of his dormitory. And behold the devil 
appearing in the form of a monkey, began 
ftrutting about before him, making ridiculous 
geftures with grimaces. Then the faint 
beckoned to him to ftand ftill, giving him a 
lighted candle to hold before him \ and he, 
although he held it, continued to make his 
grimaces. Meanwhile the candle was finifh- 
ed, and began to burn the monkey's fingers, 



Legendary Writings. 117 

and he began to lament as if tortured by the 
flame, whereas he who burns in the flames 
of hell ought not to fear a bodily flame. 
But the faint beckoned him to ftand ftill. 
Why mould I fay more ? He flood there 
until the whole of his forefinger was burnt 
down to the focket, crying out more and 
more loudly from the torture. Thus the 
man of God, ftrong in faith, having taken 
him in who fought to impofe upon him, gave 
him a fharp blow with a cane, which he 
always carried with him, faying, c Depart, 
thou wicked man; 5 and the blow founded 
as if he had ftruck a dry bladder full of wind.' 
Upon this, cafting himfelf againft the neareft 
wall, he difappeared, leaving behind him an 
ill odour, which difcovered who he was. 
Sifter Caecilia, a girl aged feventeen, firft 
received the habit of the order from the 
hand of the holy father Dominic. She be- 
held with her eyes, and heard with her ears, 
and faithfully narrated the things which are 
related."* 

The following legend is told by Mervin 
Archdall, on the authority of Joceline : — 



* A6ta Ampliora S. Dominici Confeffbris. Die quarta 
Augufti. c. xiii. 



1 1 8 Monaftic Injiitutions . 

" St. Patrick had a ftaff covered with gold, 
and fet with precious {tones, called the ftaff 
of Jefus. The hiftory of this celebrated 
ftaff, is briefly this : St. Patrick, moved by 
divine inftincr. or angelic revelation, vifited 
one Juftus, an afcetic who inhabited an ifland 
in the Tyrrhene Sea (part of the Mediter- 
ranean Sea on the Tufcan coaft), a man of 
exemplary virtue and moft holy life. After 
mutual falutations and difcourfe, he prefented 
the Irifh apoftle with a ftaff, which he 
averred he had received from the hands of 
Jefus Chrift himfelf. In this ifland were 
fome men in the bloom of youth, and others 
who appeared aged and decrepit. St. Patrick 
converfing with them, found that thofe aged 
perfons were fons of thofe feemingly young. 
Aftonifhed at this miraculous appearance, he 
was told, that from their infancy they had 
ferved God, that they were continually em- 
ployed in works of charity, and their doors 
ever open to the traveller and diftreffed ; 
that one night a ftranger, with a ftaff in his 
hand, came to them, whom they accommo- 
dated to the beft of their power ; that in the 
morning he bleffed them, and faid, c I am 
Jefus Chrift whom you have always faith- 
fully ferved, but laft night you received me 



Legendary Writings. 119 

in my proper perfon he then gave his ftaff 
to their fpiritual father, with directions to 
deliver it to a ftranger, named Patrick, who 
would fhortly vifit them ; on faying this he 
afcended into heaven, and left us in that ftate 
of juvenility in which you behold us, and our 
fons, then young, are the old decrepit perfons 
you now fee. Joceline goes on to relate 
that with this ftaff our apoftle collected 
every venomous creature in the ifland to the 
top of the mountain of Cruagh Phadring, in 
the county of Mayo, and from thence, pre- 
cipitated them into the ocean." * 

We are informed by an hiftorian of no 
mean ftanding, that after the deceafe of 
Thomas a Becket, the arrogant and dif- 
affected archbifhop of Canterbury, " it 
pleafed the Lord Jefus Chrift to irradiate his 
glorious martyr with many miracles, that it 
might appear to all the world he had obtained 
a victory fuitable to his merits. None who 
approached his fepulchre in faith returned 
without a cure. For ftrength was reftored 
to the lame, hearing to the deaf, fight to the 
blind, fpeech to the dumb, health to lepers, 
and life to the dead. Nay, not only men 



* Monafticon Hibernicum, p. 15c. 



120 Monaftic Inftitutions . 

and women, but even birds and beafts, were 
raifed from death to life."* It is likewife 
afferted, that, on being expofed to view in 
the church before his fepulture, he arofe out 
of his coffin, and lighted the wax tapers 
which were on the altar ; and that after the 
" requiem " was chanted for the repofe of 
his foul, he held up his hand to blefs the 
afTembly. Although fifty years after the 
death of Becket it was the fubjecl: of a public 
difpute at the Univerfity of Paris, whether 
he was in heaven or in hell — fo ambiguous a 
point was his fancliity : fome afferting that for 
his extreme pride he deferved to be damned 
— yet we find that in the year 1420, not 
fewer than fifty thoufand foreigners, of all 
ages and fexes, made a pilgrimage to his 
renowned fhrine, which was enriched with a 
prodigious quantity of precious gems. One 
of immenfe value, fuppofed to be the moft 
fplendid in Europe, was offered at his tomb 
by Louis VII. of France, when he made a 
pilgrimage thereto. f 

I have juft laid before the reader a fpeci- 



* Matt. Par. p. 87. 

■f Rapin's Hift. Engl. vol. i. p. 232 (fol. ed.) Burnet's 
Hift. Reform, book iii. 



Legendary Writings. 121 

men of monkifh legendary writings, felected 
for the moft part, from a work bearing the 
facred imprefs of the Vatican, namely, Ma- 
billon's Aft a Sanflorum — that moft prepof- 
terous of all apocryphal compilations ! It 
requires no comment whatever to afcertain 
the inevitable tendency of fuch a production 
as that from which I quote ; although upon 
the teftimony of Alban Butler, the famous 
compiler thereof, " whether we confult rea- 
fon, authority, or experience, we may boldly 
affirm, that except the facred writings no 
book has reclaimed fo many finners, or 
formed fo many holy men to virtue as that 
of the Lives of the Saints ! " # But this gra- 
tuitous affertion muft afluredly be alfo re- 
garded as apocryphal. He moreover ftates, 
on the teftimony of St. Auftin, " that two 
courtiers were moved on the fpot to forfake 
the world and become fervent monks, by 
accidentally reading the life of St. Anthony ; 
that St. John Columbin, from a rich, covet- 
ous, and paflionate nobleman, was changed 
into a faint, by cafually perufing the life of 
St. Mary of Egypt ; that a Marftial of France 
owed his converfion to the reading of the 



* Preface to the Lives of the Saints. 



i22 Monajlic Injlitutions . 

life of St. Francis Borgia ; and that Dr. 
Palafax, bifhop of Ofma, in his preface to 
the fourth tome of the letters of St. Therefa, 
relates, " that an eminent Lutheran minifter 
at Bremen, famous for feveral books which 
he had publifhed againft the Catholic church, 
purchafed the autobiography of that faint, 
with a view of attempting to confute it ; but 
by attentively reading it over, was converted 
to the Catholic faith ! " 

" O for delufion. O for error ftill ! " 

That prepotency which Alban Butler claims 
for the biography of Romift faints, a modern 
French divine demands for cloiftral eftab- 
lifhments. Employing vain taunts with 
reference to Proteftant England, he boaft- 
ingly exclaims: — "Your Univerfities and 
Societies of the learned have produced a 
number of men of rare merit and extenfive 
genius — the Newtons, the Lockes, the 
Addifons, the Clarkes, the Sherlocks, the 
Louths, the Lardners, the Kennicots, the 
Paleys, the Broughams, etc. But is it not 
worthy of remark, that thefe Proteftant 
fchools of learning never produced a John of 
Matha, — a Peter of Nolafco,- — a Bernard of 
Menthon, — a Peter of Betancourt, — or a 



Legendary Writings. 123 

Vincent of Paula ? " % This enthufiaftic 
abbe certainly mould have completed the no- 
ble phalanx by adding — an Anthony of Coba, 
— a Mecarius of Alexandria, — a Simeon 
Stylites, — and a Francis of Affiffi ! How- 
ever, the wonder is that in fober-minded, 
practical England, a party ftiould be found 
fo bedazzled and bedizzened as to look for 
piety from fo corrupt and corrupting a fource. 
But there is no accounting for fuch idiofyn- 
cracy of religious tafte. For our own part 
we do not envy its poffeffors. " 'Tis pitiful ; 
'tis wondrous pitiful!" But, perhaps, like 
other delufions, this too may be fliort-lived, 
and " like the bafelefs fabric of a vifion, 
leave not a wreck behind." 



* Vide Nuns and Monaftic Inftitutes, publiflied by the 
Catholic Inftitute of Great Britain — a corporation for fome 
years defundl. 



CHAPTER VII. 



The principal Monaftic Orders exi/ling in 
Great Britain and Ireland — The Vows and 
Internal Difcipline of the " Religious 

" The Court of Rome had a leading felf-interefted object 
in every one of its inftitutions, of which that of monaftic 
orders was not the leaft powerful or confpicuous. Not a 
prince in Europe has fuch a regularly conftituted body of 
Gens Marines as has the pope in thefe feveral orders j all de- 
voted to his caufe, and obliged by. their <vcivs to maintain his 
arrogant power and authority." — Rev. M. Brenan. 

O enter upon an account of the 
numerous monaftic orders — 
" black, white, and grey, with 
all their trumpery" — eftablimed 
in this and the fifter country, would exceed 
our intended limits as well as prove uninter- 
efting to the general reader. Hence, let it 
fuffice to draw attention to, and remark 
upon, a few of the moft prominent, popular, 
and powerful. 




The Cifter cian Order. 125 

The Ciftercian order, of which there is a 
flourifhing eftablimment at Mount Mellary, 
in Ireland, and another at Charnwood Foreft, 
Leicefterfhire, was originally founded towards 
the clofe of the xith century, by Robert, 
abbot of Molefme, in Burgundy, a province 
of France, who being utterly unable to revive 
the decaying and diffolute fpirit and difcipline 
of his monaftery, retired, with about twenty 
of the monks, to Citeaux (Ciftercium), in 
the diocefs of Chalons, — at that time a wild 
and barren wildernefs,— where he and his 
affociates obferved the rules of St. Benedict 
with fcrupulous exaclnefs and rigour. This 
order progrefTed in fo wonderful a manner, 
that during the following century it was pro- 
pagated throughout feveral parts of Europe. 
So great indeed was the fame of its members, 
that they not only received the moft coftly 
and munificent prefents and endowments, 
but were actually afligned the privileges of a 
fpiritual republic ; and, in civil as well as 
ecclefiaftical matters, acquired a governing 
power over every kingdom within the pre- 
cincts of which they had eftablifhed them- 
felves. The progrefs of this order exceeded 
that of all other monaftic inftitutes. And 
in lefs than a century after its foundation 



1 2 6 Monaftic Injii tut ions . 

it boafted of nearly two thoufand religious 
houfes.* 

Thofe members of the Ciftercian order, 
who planted themfelves in Ireland, were, 
feveral years ago, driven from France, having 
previoufly endured imprifonment, and fuf- 
fered many and fevere privations. Landing 
on the mores of hofpitable Ireland — whofe 
inhabitants are proverbial for a readinefs to 
fhelter the children of misfortune, and to 
fuccour the oppreffed and deftitute — they 
fpeedily gained the affections, and found an 
afylum in the homes, of the humble peafantry, 
who fympathifed with thefe exiles, more efpe- 
cially as being members of a common faith. 
Shortly after their arrival, the wandering 
monaftics, headed by their fuperior the Right 
Rev. Dr. Ryan, fixed their habitation on a 
wild and mountainous part of a fouthern dis- 
trict, where they laboured under numerous 
difadvantages, and felt the bad effects of a 
moift and humid atmofphere, fo different 
from the continental climate. Several of the 
monks were fubfequently difperfed through- 



* Mofheim's Eccles. Hlft. vol. ii. p. 357. (Soames.) 
Mabiilon's Annales Benedi&ines, vols. v. and vi. Pier le 
Nain's Eflai de l'Hiftoire de l'Ordre des Citeaux. Paris : 
1696. 



The Cijiercian Order. 127 

out England and the fifter ifle, with the 
view of collecting funds for the erection of 
amonaftery ? which would exceed infplendour 
any other edifice dedicated to cloiftered pur- 
pofes. Having by this means realifed a fuf- 
ficient fum, a fplendid monument of monaf- 
ticifm was raifed at Mount Mellary, in the 
county of Waterford, where the brotherhood 
now refide under the prefidency of a mitred 
abbot. # Sir Richard Keane, the lord of the 



* An election of an abbot took place on Thurfday, Jan- 
uary 29th, 1 846. The bifhop prefided as legate of the Holy 
See 5 Very Rev. Dr. Burke, notary, and the Very Rev. Drs. 
O'Brien, Fogarty, and Hally, witneffes, as required by the 
conftitutions of the order. The moft ftrict and fevere cau- 
tion was obferved on the part of thofe voting and thofe that 
received the votes. 

At the clofe of the fcrutiny, the announcement was made 
to the anxioufly awaiting brothers, that Father Maryjofeph 
Ryan, of Clonmel, was unanimoufly elected their future 
abbot. With joy on their countenances, and thankfgiving 
on their tongues, the holy brotherhood could fcarce contain 
themfelves, becaufe of the happinefs they felt at the appoint- 
ment of fuch a great and good man. The abbot elect was 
then introduced into his place in the choir, while the monas- 
tery bells were pealing forth the joy of the happy inmates. 
On entering the church, the u Te Deum" was chanted by 
the refponfive choir in thankfgiving to God, whofe Holy 
Spirit was invoked, and directed the choice juft made. Here 
he was confirmed in his new capacity by having the crofier 
put into his hand ; a very interefting ceremony. From the 



128 Monajlic Injtitutions. 

manor, granted for the fite of the building a 
large tract ofmountain-land, comprifing above 
five hundred acres, at a nominal rent. A^uch 
merit is really due to the monks fof the per- 
fevering induftry with which they have culti- 
vated fo large and barren a wafte, upon which 
no herbage previoufly grew. Now T fchools 
are erected, the foil is made productive, and 
altogether the place looks as if it had been 
touched by the wand of the enchanter. 

The Ciftercian order is confidered infe- 
rior to none but the Carthufian, — fo called 
from Chartreux^ near Grenoble, in Dau- 
phine, — which was inftituted a. d. 1084, by 
Bruno, a native of Cologne, and canon of 
the Cathedral of Rheims. " This zealous 
ecclefiafiVc," obferves the hiftorian, " who 
had neither power to reform, nor patience 
to bear, the diffolute manners of his arch- 
bifhop, A^anafTe, retired from his church, 
with fix of his companions, and having ob- 
tained the permiffion of Hugh, bifhop of 
Grenoble, fixed his refidence in a miferable 
defert. He adopted at firft the rule of St. 



choir he was conducted by the bhhop through the church 
into the chapter-room, and inftalled in the abbatial throne, 
where he is in future to guide and govern this holy and truly 
perfect community. — The "Tablet. 



The Cijiercian Order. 129 

Benedi£t, to which he added a confiderable 
number of fevere and rigorous precepts. His 
fucceflbrs, however, went ftill farther, and 
impofed upon the Carthufians new laws, much 
more intolerable than thofe of their founder ; 
laws which inculcated the higheft degrees of 
aufterity that the moft gloomy imagination 
could invent. And yet, not with (landing all 
this, it is remarkable, that no monaftic fociety 
degenerated fo little from the feverity of its 
primitive inftitution and difcipline, as that of 
the Carthufians."* 

The Trappifts derive their name from La 
Trappe, fituate on the borders of Perche and 
Normandy, in which locality Routrou, Count 
du Perche, in order to fulfil a vow made by 
him when in danger of being fhipwrecked, 
founded an eftabliftiment of the order, a. d. 
H40.t With reference to the difcipline 
enjoined by the Ciftercian conftitutions, it 
will be fufficient to confine my remarks to 
a delineation of its moft prominent features. 

The monks of this order are divided into 
two clafTes ; namely, choir-religious, and lay- 
brothers. The former are either priefts, or 

* MofheirrTs Eccles. Hift. vol. ii. Heylofs Hift. des 
Ordres, torn, vii, p. 366, 
\ Memoirs of Count D'Auvergne. 

K 



150 Monajiic Inftitutions . 

candidates for the priefthood, although there 
are fome among them, who, from affecled 
humility, would not accept fo exalted a por- 
tion. The choir-monks wear white habits 
or tunics, with an additional garment at- 
tached, which covers the head. At the vari- 
ous canonical hours they chant the fervice 
of the church, in the choir of the chapel at- 
tached to their monaftery. They take the 
firfb place in the refectory and dormitory, 
and are allowed certain other privileges, 
needlefs to mention, which are denied to the 
fubordinate members of the community. 

The lay-brothers, for the moft part, are a 
clafs of vulgar and illiterate perfons, being 
diftinguifhed from the choir-religious by a 
brown habit and hood which defcends fo low 
as almoft to conceal their faces from obfer- 
vation. Thefe individuals do not afliii in 
the Latin office, but as a fubftitute recite, or 
more properly mutter over, a number of 
paters and aves, which they reckon on their 
many-ftringed beads — the only mode of per- 
forming devotional exercifes practifed by the 
ignorant of the papacy, for which caufe Man- 
tuan has very juftly ftyled their religion — 

" Religionem, 
Ouae filo infertis numerat fua murmura baccis j" 



I 



The Ciftercian Order. 131 

or cc a religion that numbers their murmurs 
by berries filed upon a firing." Might not 
this kind of prayer be truly likened to the B«t- 
roxoyia, or vain repetitions of the Gentiles, # 
which Chrift condemned, and againft which 
he cautions his followers ? — " When ye pray, 
ufe not vain repetitions as the heathen do ; 
for they think that they (hall be heard for 
their much fpeaking. Be not ye, therefore, 
like unto them."f 

The lay-brothers perform the drudgery of 
the kitchen, and a£t generally in the capacity 
of fervants ; but are under precifely the fame 
difcipline, in moft other refpedts, as the choir- 
monks. Each brother has a mat for a couch, 
which accommodation, trifling as it is, was 
denied on the Continent. The entire com- 
munity rife at the early hour of one in the 
morning, and are fpared the inconvenience 
of dreffing by rarely taking off their clothes. 
They affift at and celebrate feveral mafles 
each day ; have long mental and vocal devo- 
tional exercifes ; wear hair-cloth next their 
fkin; work much in the fields; keep perpetual 



* Ohe, jam define Deos, uxor gratulando obtundere ; 
Nifi illos tuo ex ingenio judicas, 

Set nihil credas intelligere, nifi idem di&um eft centies. 

Terence, Heauton, a& v. fcene i. 

f Matt. vi. 7, 8. 



132 Monajiic Injlitutions. 

filence, expreffing their wants but by figns ; 
obferve two Lenten feafons in the year ; par- 
take of neither flefh nor fifh, at their fcantv 
meals, which generally are compofed of little 
more than coarfe brown bread, prepared by 
themfelves; and mutually adminifter the 
" difcipline," or flagellation, on each fuccef- 
five Friday — an act of penance rendered if 
not more fevere, at leaft more meritorious, 
by the folemn recital of the pfalm "Mife- 
rere met Deus"^ during the painful and fome- 
times bloody operation.* A grave is always 
in readinefs to receive as a tenant within its 
chill embrace the laft remains of him, who by 
protra&ed and extreme voluntary fuffering, 
haftens his approach to that final lodgment ; 
and occafionally the poor monk is fent to 
meditate, for half-an-hour together, over the 
yawning fepulchre. When one of the frater- 
nity comes to die, he is laid upon a bed of aflies 
fpread on the ground in the form of a crofs ! 

* This mode of torture, like moft of the other puerile 
and wicked practices in the Romift church, is of pagan 
origin. The priefts of Baal, like the Ciftercians, had the 
practice among them of whipping, lacerating, and fcourging 
themfelves, until the blood came ; and the priefts of the 
goddefs Cybele, or Bellona, were wont to cut themfelves 
with knives and lancets.— Pi&et. Huh Sermons fur VExamen 
des Religions j p. 261. edit. Geneve. 1716, 



The Cifler cian Order. 133 

At a later period the Ciftercian monks 
eftabliftied themfelves at Charnwood Foreft, 
near Loughborough, Leicefterftiire, where 
they have ere£ted a magnificent and fpacious 
monaftic ftrucfture. Singular enough, on this 
very ground once flood the Ciftercian abbey 
of Garendon, which, with fimilar inftitutions, 
was diflblved under Henry VIII. The fite 
of the new convent, not feventeen years 
fince, prefented to the traveller a wild, hilly, 
and defolate region, with fcarce any appear- 
ance of vegetable life. Now, the whole 
adjoining country is reclaimed, and exhibits, 
efpecially in autumn, an afpeft of cheerful- 
nefs and luxuriance. A naked and fterile foil 
has been reduced to cultivation and fertility. 
Fruits, corn, and other produce of the firft 
defcription, are grown around thefe cloiftered 
walls, and yield in the neighbouring markets 
the higheft prices. Here may be obferved all 
the paraphernalia appertaining to the beft 
farm-houfe — a cow-houfe, a dairy, a forge, 
a mill, a bake-houfe, and even a brewery ; 
all placed under the vigilant fuperintendence 
of the brothers. On the farm may be ob- 
ferved the choir-religious, diverted of his 
flowing habit, in plain working coftume, like 
thofe of inferior grade, who for the moft part 



134 Monajlic Inftitutions . 

have all their lives been accuftomed to ma- 
nual toil, delving the ground and cheerfully 
labouring as the others, apparently refigned 
to the will — not of Heaven certainly, but of 
his fuperior and his rule ! There is a gueft- 
room fet apart for the reception of ftrangers, 
who are kindly and hofpitably entertained 
irrefpective of their religious creed. Upon the 
vifitor's arrival he is immediately conduced 
by the gueft-mafter to the chapel. From 
thence he is led to the reception-room. 
During fupper fome portion of an entertaining 
book is read aloud ; and at an appointed hour 
each gueft is mown to a fimple, yet comfort- 
able fleeping apartment, which confifts of a 
bed, a kneeling-defk, a chair or two, fome 
books, and a common deal table, with con- 
veniences for writing. 

It is really an extraordinary fight to obferve 
an order of Ciftercian monks in England at 
this ftage of our civilization. To fee an abbey 
remarkable for its architectural defign and 
perfect in all its interior ramifications, with 
its abbot, prior,* fub-prior, and chapter, com- 



* The prior was often at the head of a great monaftic 
foundation : many of thefe alfo had a place in the higher 
houfe of parliament. Sometimes the prior ruled an abbey 



The Cijier cian Order. 135 

prifing brethren lettered and unlettered, noble 
and plebeian, priefts and laics, all bound by- 
vows, adopting the moft ftringent monaftic 
rules, and living in apparent harmony and 
fimplicity, watching, praying, falling, toiling 
in the fields \ and thus pafling dreary and 
dreadful years of a ftrange and unnatural ex- 
igence. This order was never regarded as 
dangerous to either the civil or religious 
powers — which caufed Napoleon to fay of its 
members : " Des hommes qui travaillent beau- 
coup et qui mangent peu, et par confequence ne 
fauraient nuire a Petat" 

The Ciftercians have generally been re- 
markable for the ftricT: obfervance of their 
rules, efpecially that which enjoins filence. 
A ftory is told by Gaillardin, of a lay-brother 
belonging to the convent of Villiers in Fland- 
ers, who thwarted the defigns of a nobleman 
that had laid a wager upon his fuccefs in 



fubordinate to a great abbey ; but in thefe leffer abbeys or 
cells there was often a confiderable difference ; fome were 
altogether fubjecl: to the great abbey, from whence the officers 
and monks were brought, and the revenues made a part of 
the common ftock ; to others a prior was fent from the 
abbey, and the convent paid a pennon yearly as an acknow- 
ledgment of their fubjection ; but in other matters they acted 
as an independent body. — Monafticon Hiber. 



1 3 6 Monaftic Injlitutions. 

caufing the poor monk to break filence. He 
opened the converfation by afking his road, 
which was at once pointed out. Other quef- 
tions were put, to which no refponfe was 
given. The nobleman at this became enraged, 
threatened, vociferated, lifted his hand, and 
actually ftruck the religious, who manifefted 
no uneafinefs or anger thereat, but gently 
turned the other cheek to his tormentor. 
This was too much for the aggreflbr, who 
upon preparing to remount his horfe, faw the 
monk caft down his fpade and run to affift 
him. The young nobleman being over- 
come by compunction, afked forgivenefs, and 
ftied tears. And fo great an impreflion did 
the conduit of the brother make on his mind, 
that he himfelf renounced the world and 
became a monk.* 

Both the choir and lay religious make vows 
of poverty, chaftity, and obedience ; + and 

* Gaillar. Hift. Ab. de la Trappe. 

\ Thefe vows are not profitable, much lefs neceffary, 
but pernicious to the chriftian church. From the vow of 
continence arofe abominable filthinefles of all kinds in the 
monks' cloyfters. From the vow of feigned poverty arofe 
fo many kinds of unprofitable drones, which devour the 
honey of the fedulous bees. From the vow of blinde and 
abfolute obedience^ flow fuch execrable infolencies againft 
the lives of princes, and fuch horrible treafons as have 



The Cifter clan Order. 137 

by virtue of a papal bull, have the privilege 
extended to them of making thefe vows 
perpetual. Hence, after a trying noviciate 
of a few years, the benighted and unfocial 
monk becomes bound to his cloifter, where 
he ftrives,by the pradtice of rigid obfervances, 
either to obtain an increafe of merit, or with 
difguft for life, to haften the termination of 
that exiftence which an all-wife Creator had 
beftowed for better and wifer purpofes, viz. 
the advancement of obje&s beneficial to the 
human family. Thus does the unhappy 
folitary partially fruftrate and neutralife the 
defigns of heavenly wifdom, and, in the words 
of the poet — 

" Sets fuperftition high on virtue's throne, 
Then thinks his Maker's temper like his own ; 
Hence are his altars ftained with reeking gore, 
As if he could atone for crimes by more. 
Thus, whilft offended Heaven he ftrives in vain 
T' appeafe by fafts, and voluntary pain, 
Ev'n in repenting, he provokes again." 

Nor are the words which Minutius Felix 
addrefTed to the devotees of the heathen 
divinities, who ufed, in like manner, to cut 
and lafh themfelves in honour of their gods, 



frequently been perpetrated by the Jefuits. — Leigh's Body 
of Divinity. London, 1654. lib. viii. p. 743. 



138 Monajlic Inftitutions. 

inapplicable to thefe monks : — " O, ye hea- 
thens ! " faid he, " what infatuation, what 
frenzy has feized upon you, that you thus dif- 
honour yourfelves on pretence of honouring 
your gods ? You fupplicate your gods with 
the mouths of your wounds. It were better 
to have no religion at all, than be of fuch a 
religion. Certainly thofe who are guilty of 
fuch fanatical exceffes muft be loft to all 
reafon and common fenfe ! " 



The Chri/iian Brothers. 

I SHALL now draw attention to the reli- 
gious fraternity known as the Chriftian 
Brothers, or, Brothers of the Chriftian 
Schools, — an order originally planted in Paris 
towards the clofe of the xvnth century by 
John Baptift de la Salle, — a man of no ordi- 
nary learning and ability, and remarkable for 
en erg} 7 , perfeverance, fingularity, and devo- 
tion to one object. He was born at Rheims 
on the 30th of April, 1651, and was the firft 
fruit of the union between Alademoifelle 
Moet de Brouillet and M. de la Salle, who 
held a high appointment in the Prefidial Court 
of that place. His parents had defigned him 



The Chrijtian Brothers. 139 

for fome exalted fecular purfuit ; but at an 
early age having declared his intention to 
enter the priefthood, they mo ft reluctantly 
confented, notwithftanding that fuch confent 
overturned all their darling projects. Upon 
completing his ecclefiaftic ftudies in Paris, 
he was ordained prieft by his archbifliop 
M. le Tellier, on the Eafter of the year 
1671, and entered upon a canonry in the 
cathedral of Rheims. 

His tafte for monaftic difcipline foon 
manifefted itfelf by the way in which he 
regulated his houfehold. There were ap- 
pointed hours for rifing, ftudy, and devotion. 
Silence was likewife enjoined, and the prac- 
tice of fpiritual reading during the refection. 
Naturally enough thefe proceedings attracted 
public notice, and the young ecclefiaftic was 
ftrongly cenfured for impofing fuch unnecef- 
fary reftrictions upon his younger brothers. 
He was upbraided with being fingular in his 
manners, morofe and auftere in his habits, 
and a " difgrace to the family," and the 
illuftrious chapter of which he was a mem- 
ber. So far from fuch opprobrium caufing 
him to relax the difcipline he had adopted, 
it rendered him ftill more punctilious in his 
idiofyncratic obfervances. 



H° Monajiic Inftitutions. 

De la Salle had a ftrong natural difpofi- 
tion to drowfinefs, which in his cafe, almoft 
amounted to a malady. His fervant had 
inftructions to awake him at four o'clock 
every morning, and not to retire until he had 
dreffed. He then entered upon his devo- 
tions ; but fleepinefs, which feemed to have 
been his demon, quickly returned. To 
remedy this, according to his biographer, 
Pere Garreau, of the Society of Jefus, " he 
condemned himfelf to kneel during prayer 
on fharp-pointed ftones, and thus fucceeded 
in defeating the enemy, as the fevere pain 
which they occafioned kept him continually 
attentive. This was only a prelude to the 
mortifications which he practifed when Su- 
perior of the Chriftian Brothers ; and thus 
it was by this means that God unconfcioufly 
difpofed him for the noble work of their 
inftitution."* About the year 1681, an 
accident occurred to our hero which would 
have proved fatal, had not Providence mi- 
raculoufly interpofed to preferve the life of 
the faint. So fays his biographer. The ftory 
goes, that one day when returning from the 
country, in confequence of the ground being 



* Life of the Ven. J. B. De la Salle, D.D. 



The Chrifiian Brothers. 141 

covered with fnow, he happened to fall into 
an abyfs remote from human fuccour. With 
the profpe£t of immediate death before his 
mind, he remained unmoved, and tranquilly 
befought aid from heaven. Immediately 
the fnow, afluming a confiftency, became 
hardened beneath his tread ; and thus was 
he enabled to extricate himfelf from his 
perilous pofition. In order, however, that 
he mould retain a grateful remembrance of 
this divine interpofition, the Lord was pleafed 
to afflidl him with a rupture ! * 

M. de la Salle, after much labour, difap- 
pointment and vexatious oppofition, fuc- 
ceeded in founding a monaftic inftitute at 
Rheims, by colledting together a few difci- 
ples. In order more effectually to carry out 
his purpofes he refigned his canonry ; and 
for the edification and encouragement of the 
brothers made a total renunciation of his 
property in favour of the poor. He next 
drew up temporarily rules for the guidance 
of the community, adopted ecclefiaftical 
coftume, and fixed upon a name for the new 
order. Having, with two others, in the 
November of 169 1, made vows of aflbciation 



* Ibid, 



142 Monajiic Injlitutions . 

and liability to the inftitution, even although 
they mould be neceffitated through poverty 
to afk alms or live on bread alone, he eftab- 
lifhed a noviciate in Vaugirard, where he 
met with the co-operation of Count du 
Charmel. " What is read of the ancient 
folitaries concerning aufterity and mortifica- 
tions," obferves Pere Garreau, " can fcarcely 
furpafs the practices of the novices at Vau- 
girard. They inhabited a houfe without 
furniture or a window that could be clofed. 
The rooms were open to the winds, to rain, 
fleet, and fnow. They had no beds except 
badly made-up palliafles. Two counterpanes 
only were in the eftablifhment ; one of which 
was for the fick, and the other for M. de la 
Salle, but was never worn by him. The 
building was deftitute of both fire and kitchen \ 
confequently, food had to be prepared at 
Rue du Bac \ and this confifted only of fome 
remains afforded by the charitable commu- 
nity of St. Sulpice. The drefs of the novices 
announced extreme poverty, and though they 
praclifed long prayers, fafts, and watching, 
yet were they content and happy."* 

De la Salle made it a practice to faft for 



* Life of the Ven. J. B. De la Salle, D.D. 



The Chrijiian Brothers. 143 

days together, in order to overcome all kinds 
of repugnance to food. It is faid that he knew 
not the nature of the edibles which ufed to be 
ferved at table. On one occafion, the cook by 
miftake placed before the brothers fome pre- 
pared wormwood. After tailing it, they be- 
lieved they were poifoned, and ceafed eating ; 
but the fuperior finifhed the meal. Upon 
manifefting to him their uneafinefs, the food 
was examined and its nature difcovered, 
which circumftance continued long to form 
matter for amufement. 

Having founded an inftitute in Paris, M. 
de la Salle retired to the folitude of Vaugirard 
where,after fafting and macerating his body, 
he proceeded to frame a code of rules whereby 
the various communities he had organifed 
mould uniformly be governed. When thefe 
were completed he fummoned the brethren 
together, and having placed his collection of 
decrees in their hands, authorifed them to 
exprefs thereupon their free opinion. The 
majority readily concurred in the views of 
their fuperior, while others murmured at the 
rigidity of the propofed reftridtions. This 
want of unanimity among his difciples led 
M. de la Salle to enter upon a further retreat 
of eight days, during which time he made 



Monajlic hiftitutions. 

fuch modifications as wifdom and prudence 
dictated. The following was the refult : — 
The brothers were to obferve ftrict filence 
at recreation, until they had firft faluted the . 
brother-director and obtained his permiflion. 
They were not to fpeak of any individual 
but in terms of praife. They were not to 
indulge in any frivolous talking, or what was 
merely calculated to indulge an idle curiofity. 
Silence was to be obferved when they fepa- 
rated after recreation. Levity and jefting 
were to be avoided. Loud talk and laughter 
were prohibited. They were neither to con- 
tradict nor to correct each other, this being 
referved to the brother-director. Finally, 
they were to difcourfe on fuch topics only as 
might lead to the love of God and to the 
practice of virtue. Thefe rules were further 
extended and modified at a fubfequent period. 

The next ftep taken by the founder of 
this new order was, to have the brothers 
vow ftability to the inftitute and obedience 
to himfelf. Meanwhile the fchoolmafters 
of Paris viewed the progrefs of this in- 
ftitution with jealoufy and as inimical to 
their interefts, which undoubtedly was the 
cafe. Accordingly, they raifed clamours 
againft the monks \ and having taken legal 



The Chrijiian Brothers. 145 

proceedings, obtained a provifional fentence, 
by virtue of which they took pofleffion of 
whatever effedts were found in the fchools 
of St. Sulpice. The brothers were next 
cited before the authorities, and pending the 
decifion of the court had to clofe their fchools. 
This was no fmall trial to the energetic 
founder, who for three months had to view 
his cheriflied plans inoperative. After the 
cafe had been heard the judge decided, that 
the abftra&ed property fliould be reftored to 
the fchools, and that the brothers had autho- 
rity to refume their functions ; a fentence 
which was received by the people with ftiouts 
of acclamation. 

So great had the reputation of M. de la 
Salle and his community become, that neigh- 
bouring bifliops, and even Louis XIV., 
patronifed and advanced the interefts of the 
new fraternity. Perfons of all ranks and 
conditions flocked to the fchools, which had 
now been eftablifhed at Chartres, Calais, 
Troyes, St. Yon, Dijon, Rouen, Grenoble, 
St. Denis, and the principal towns of France. 
Even an eftabliftiment was founded in 
Rome, a.d.i 702, under the joint protection 
of Clement XI. and the archbifhop ; a 
confummation which De la Salle had long 

L 



146 Monajlic Inftituttons. 

and earneftly defired. Thefe indefatigable 
labours and protracted aufrerities, however, 
brought on acute illnefs ; and he expired at 
Rouen, on Good Friday, 17 19, at the age of 
68 years. In 1734, the brothers of St. Yon, 
having built a fine church, folicited Nicholas, 
archbifhop of Rouen, to grant to them the 
remains of their founder ; which requeft was 
unhefitatingly complied with. The account 
of the exhumation cannot better be given 
than in the biographer's own words : — w On 
the 1 6th July, about three o'clock, P. m., 
M. Bridel, vicar-general of Rouen, came to 
the church of St. Severus, accompanied by 
many clergymen and fome members of par- 
liament. The tomb of M. de la Salle was 
opened in his prefence. The body was found 
entire ; but his facerdotal ornaments were 
decayed. Corruption had fpared the tafTel 
of his fquare cap, his flioes, and the little 
wooden crofs, which had been placed be- 
tween his hands. All thefe were taken away 
with a pious folicitude by the affiftants, who 
wifhed to preferve them as relics. When 
the body had been exhumed, and a verbal 
procefs of the ftate in which it was found 
had been drawn up, the proceflion com- 
menced its route. It was compofed of more 



The Chriftian Brothers. 147 

than three hundred ecclefiaftics, all in fur- 
plices, and holding lighted tapers. The body 
was borne by fixteen priefts, in furplices and 
ftoles, and four canons from the metropolis 
held the corners of the pall. To maintain 
good order among the immenfe crowds that 
affifted at this folemn ceremony, troops were 
placed in files, between which the clergy 
walked. When the proceffion approached 
the houfe of St. Yon, the brothers went 
out to meet it, carrying lighted tapers, and 
joining their prayers to the folemn pfalms 
ufed on fuch occafions. Shortly after the 
entry of the body into the church, the pre- 
fident of the parliament, feveral magiftrates 
and ladies of diftinction, who had juft arrived, 
expreffed a defire to fee the holy body. The 
coffin was opened to fatisfy their pious curi- 
ofity. M. Bridel, who officiated, blefTed the 
vault, and the precious remains were depo- 
fited therein on the fame evening. Next 
day the archbimop confecrated the chapel, 
and celebrated in it the firfl: mafs."* 

Between the years 1699, and the 19th of 
February 1790, when the National AfTembly 
ifiued a dfcree fuppreffing all religious focie- 



* Life of the Ven.J. B. De la Salle, by Pere Garreau, S.J. 



148 Monajtic Injiitutions. 

ties, this inftitute flourimed remarkably, not- 
with {landing the legal impediments and fevere 
oppofition it had frequently to encounter, of 
which the factious fpirit and bafe conduct 
of fome members were not the leaft. After 
the Reign of Terror, during which the pro- 
perty of the brothers had been confifcated, 
and even fome had fallen martyrs, along with 
three prelates, to democratic fury,* Napo- 
leon re-eftablimed the order by a decree 
iflued on the 10th March, 1808 ; though its 
progrefs was fcarcely perceptible until the 
reftoration of the Bourbon family to the 
throne of France, when it once more began 
to flourifli. In 1724, Lewis XV. confirmed 
the fociety, by granting to it letters-patent ; 
and through the inftrumentality of Cardinal 
Rohan, who held the office of ambaflador, 
the rules of the new fodality were approved 
by Benedict XIII. and the inftitute itfelf 

* The convent of Difcalced Carmelites, where thefe 
brothers met with their death, is fituate in the Rue de 
Vaugirard. It has been redeemed by Madame de Soyecourt, 
a Carmelite nun, and now belongs to that community. Its 
church is remarkable for its elegance and beautiful dome. 
The fpots of blood from the martyred priefts are ftill feen 
on the walls and kifled with refpecl. An interior chapel 
at the foot of the garden preferves alfo fimilar traces. It is 
vifited annually by numbers of the faithful. — Note to Life 
of De la Salle by the Chrifian Brothers, 



The Chrijlian Brothers. 149 

elevated to the dignity of a religious order. 
Bulls to this effect were difpatched from 
Rome in January, 1725. 

From the official returns of the French 
fuperior-general up to the 10th November, 
1842, we find that there are in France 
three hundred and twenty-fix convents of the 
order, containing 3,024 members, including 
novices. In Italy, there are thirteen houfes, 
and 114 brothers. In Piedmont, eleven 
eftablifliments, containing 135 inmates. In 
Belgium, feventeen monafteries and 185 
monks. Befides which there are foundations 
in Switzerland, Greece, and even Canada — 
the entire amounting to three hundred and 
ninety religious houfes, and 3,615 members. 

An eminent writer obferves, that " unlefs 
a tree has borne bloffoms in fpring, you will 
vainly look for fruit on it in autumn."* 
Now, in proof that modern monafticifm is 
juft as prone to indulge in the fupernatural 
as in its palmy days of ignorance and fuper- 
ftition, when even monks did not know the 
name of the rule by which they had bound 
themfelves to follow, f it will only be necef- 



* Guefles at Truth. 

f Moiheim's Eccles. Hift. vol. ii. p. 286. (Soames.) 



is© Mo?iaftic Injlitutions . 

fary for me to infert the following mythical 
ftory, related as ftubborn fact, from the pen 
of the Jefuitical biographer of M. de la Salle ; 
though one can fcarcely imagine how fuch 
fatuity of mind could be exhibited in this 
enlightened age of human progrefs. It is a 
legend of the 18th century ! — 

u The Chevalier d ? Arm ftadt, a young lord 
of an illuftrious houfe in Germany, quitting 
the fervice of the emperor, after the battle 
of Denain, came to France, and palling 
through Lyons, he delayed there for fome 
days to fee whatever might be curious in 
that city. Much converfation was then at 
Lyons about a demoniac who was to be 
exorcifed. The chevalier, who was not a 
catholic and was but little difpofed to believe 
what is called pojjeffion, had the curiofity to 
go fee the exorcifms performed. He entered 
the church a fceptic pitying the credulity 
and fimplicity of the fpectators. When 
he approached the demoniac, writhing in 
frightful contortions, thus addreffed him : 
c Thou believeft not that there are demons, 
but one day thou malt feel their fury. 3 Thefe 
words were to him like a thunderbolt. It was 
a grace which God granted him. He was 
faithful to it at the moment. He went out 



The Chrijiian Brothers. 151 

in confternation, making the mo ft mournful 
refledtions upon his unbelief and the diforders 
of his life. He refolved to renounce his 
errors and enter into the bofom of the 
catholic church, whofe doctrine he began 
to ftudy ; and fome months after he made 
his abjuration to the archbifhop of Lyons. 
Then, with the defign of performing a fuit- 
able penance, he went to Paris in order to 
place himfelf under the direction of fome 
zealous and enlightened confelTor capable of 
aiding him to quit his irregularities. God led 
him to the community of St. Sulpice. One 
of the members, a virtuous prieft, advifed 
him to fortify himfelf ftill more in his good 
refolutions by retiring into the houfe of M. 
de la Salle. The fervent penitent followed 
this counfel and became a boarder among 
the brothers on the 8th of Odlober, 17 14. 

" He almoft inftantly wifhed to perform 
the fame exercifes as the novices. It was 
then the demon kept the promife which he 
had made to him at Lyons. The chevalier 
had received many dangerous wounds, which 
he had cured by means prohibited by the law 
of God. From the moment of his entry 
among the brothers he felt great pains which 
increafed daily. He loft his reft, and patted 



i s 2 Monajitc Inftitutions . 

the night in groans loud enough to be heard 
by thofe in the next apartments. The bro- 
thers thought thefe were the groans of a 
converted heart. One morning he was 
abfent from the exercifes. They went to his 
chamber, where they found him in bed, 
motionlefs, fenfelefs, and weltering in his 
blood. Terrified at this fad fpe&acle, they 
haftened to afford him relief. The remedies 
prefcribed took no effe£t. He remained 
fome days motionlefs and fpeechlefs. They 
defpaired of his life ; and he received extreme 
uncYion. 

" This facrament produced a wonderful 
effect. Immediately his gaping wounds 
clofed. He recovered his fpeech and recol- 
lection, and next day he was able to refume 
the exercifes of the novices. Shortly after 
he relapfed into the fame ftate and gave 
figns of life only by frightful contortions, 
vomiting blood and rolling his eyes in a 
horrible manner. He was often obferved 
to fix his eyes upon a particular part of the 
chamber, to move his lips rapidly, and to 
make motions with his arms like to thofe of 
a man who fights and wards off blows. 
He paffed the whole night in thefe violent 
agitations. A vifion of four hours fucceeded, 



I ■ 

The Chrijiian Brothers. 153 

in which he faw, under frightful forms, a 
crowd of demons, who threatened to kill 
him, if he did not immediately quit the houfe. 
This fpectacle coft him extraordinary efforts, 
which reduced him to fuch debility that they 
thought he would expire at every moment. 
After this he beheld the Bleffed Virgin, to 
whom he was very devout fince his conver- 
fion. Her prefence difperfed the infernal 
troop. She approached to confole him, and 
in a fliort time he recovered. 

" No fooner was he in the re-enjoyment 
of his health than he begged to be admitted 
to the habit of the brothers, and was confe- 
quently received. The demon at this became 
furious, and alTailed him by new torments, 
feizing him by the neck and grafping him fo 
tightly as if he would have ftrangled him, 
and thus deprived him of the power of refpi- 
ration. His tongue became thick and inca- 
pable of motion ; yet his recollection ftill 
remained, and he received the holy viaticum 
with marks of great devotion. The com- 
munity thinking he was about to expire 
recited the prayers for a departing foul. As 
they proceeded the demon gradually relaxed 
his fury, and finally left him in health and 
peace. 



154 Monajiic Injiitutions. 

cc The evil fpirit, exafperated at his having 
embraced a life fo holy and fo penitent, foon 
returned again to the charge. One day he 
fo moved the fprings of the chevalier's imagi- 
nation that he thought he beheld the prieft 
who advifed him to join the community, 
brother Bartholomew, and the mafter of 
novices, each armed with a heavy difcipline, 
lacerating his back in a moft pitilefs manner. 
This was to infpire him with a horror for 
thefe three men who directed him in the 
affairs of his falvation. The idea remained 
fome time engraven on his mind without 
being difluaded from its reality ; when, at 
length, he knew the malice of the impofture 
he animated himfelf the more to fuftain his 
attacks. Satan affaulted him anew. He tore 
the nails from his feet. He felt eafily con- 
vinced of this fact by the teftimony of his 
eyes. This was feen by all the brothers ! From 
all thefe appearances M. de la Salle judged 
that the novice was poffeffed by a demon : 
but, as he knew a perfon may be deceived 
in fuch cafes, he referved his thoughts to 
himfelf. He (hut himfelf up in the chamber 
of the novice and repeated over him the 
prayers of the church for demoniacs. Thefe 
prayers were efficacious. The demon was 



The Chriftian Brothers. 155 

forced to quit the unfortunate young man, 
who no longer felt his attacks, but who very 
foon after proved faithlefs to his vocation."* 
The firft attempt to eftablifti a fimilar re- 
ligious guild in this country was made in 
Ireland by Mr. Edmond Rice, of Waterford, 
during the year 1802, when a few brothers 
aflbciated under the foftering care and fpiri- 
tual guidance of Dr. Thomas Hufley, the 
Roman catholic prelate of that city. The 
conftitutions of the Prefentation order were 
originally adopted by the members of this 
new community, but thefe were fubfequently 
relinquifhed for thofe of their foreign con- 
freres. 

So rapidly did this inflitution progrefs that 
in 1808, it poflefled three foundations, al- 
though the number of poftulants were necef- 
farily limited. It was then thought defirable 
to make annual vows, as thofe of a longer 
duration are not permitted except in an order 
confirmed by the papal fee. Accordingly 
Dr. Power, who had fucceeded to the pre- 
lacy, drew up the required formulae ; and the 
monks, after an eight-days' retreat, pro- 
nounced them in the bifhop's prefence. 



* Life of the Ven. J. B. De la Salle. 



1 5 6 Monajlic Injl hut ions . 

The inftitute fhortly afterwards affumed a 
regular fhape. There was lefs difficulty in 
obtaining (ubjefts, and its further extenfion 
became manifeft. Dr. Power wrote to the 
Propaganda, giving a detailed account of what 
had been done, and praying for its approval. 
In reply, Cardinal de Pietro fuggefted that the 
rules and conftitutions of the fociety be laid 
before Pius VII., a proceeding, however, 
which was never taken. 

After Dr. Murray had returned from Paris 
to Dublin in 1817, he fubmitted to the bro- 
thers there the rules of the French inftitute, 
together with the apoftolic brief by which it 
was confirmed. A general chapter was con- 
vened in Waterford on 19th Aug. 18 17, in 
order to confider the propriety of embracing 
the propofed conftitutions. After much dif- 
cuffion and deliberation, it was finally agreed 
to accept as many of the articles fpecified 
in the brief as were confidered feafible. 
The rules thus adopted were then tranf- 
mitted to Rome for approval, accompanied 
by a memorial from the brothers, and letters 
from feveral biihops recommending the 
pontiff* to grant the prayer thereof. On the 
5th of Feb. 1820, a brief was illued by Pius 
VII. confirming not only thefe articles but 



The Chrtjiian Brothers. 157 

the inftitute itfelf ; which document was 
conveyed to Ireland by Dr. Kenny, of the 
Society of Jefus, early the following year. 

The brothers, nineteen in number, a fl em- 
bled at Thurles on the 25th of Auguft follow- 
ing, when this papal brief was read and adopt- 
ed, there being but three diflentient voices. 
Votes of thanks were alfo paffed to thofe pre- 
lates under whofe guardianfhip the inftitute 
had flourifhed. The fenior brotherhood then 
adjourned to the convent at Waterford, and 
entered upon a retreat of eight days, which 
was conducted by the bifhop. When the 
retreat had terminated, they proceeded to the 
domeftic chapel. After fundry religious fer- 
vices the brief was publicly read. During the 
reading the monks remained on their knees. 
Then in prefence of each other, and with 
lighted tapers in their hands, they feverally 
pronounced irrevocable vows. The next 
ftep was to proceed to fcrutiny in order to 
elect a fuperior-general ; which office, by a 
majority of fuffrages, was conferred upon the 
founder. At firft the governing power was 
not inverted in an individual beyond ten 
years, after which a frefh election took place. 
It was thought defirable, however, to make 
the general's authority ceafe only with his life \ 



158 Monajiic Lift i tut ions. 

which decree was alfo confirmed by a papal 
refcript, in 1833.* Upon the refignation of 
the late Mr. Edmond Rice, in July, 1838, 
owing to infirmity, Mr. M. P. Rierdon, a very 
eftimable and accomplished man, was elevated 
to the rank of fuperior-general. 

The annexed is the official returns of the 
condition of the order up to a recent period : 
— " The Inftitute is compofed of nineteen 
houfes, having ninety fchool-brothers, fifteen 
ferving brothers, fifty-eight fchools, and about 
ten thoufand children and adults under in- 
ftruction. There are eleven of the houfes 
fituate in Ireland ; namelv, in Dublin (three) ; 
Waterford, Cork, Limerick, Dungarvan, 
Carrick-on-Suir, Thurles, Enniftymon, and 
Claren Bridge, Countv Galwav : feven in 
England, London (two); Manchefter (two) 
Liverpool, Prefton, and Sunderland; and one 
in Sydnev, to which three brothers were fent 



* This clearly exhibits the fpiritual jurifdiction which 
pontiffs affume over the liege fubjecls of kings and emperors. 
The very pope alluded to, in his bull, "Ad Perpetuam rei 
Memoriam" dated from the church of Santa Maria, the 
Major at Rome, the ioth of July, 1809, ufes thele emphatic 
words : — " Let them once again underfland that, by the law 
of Chrifty their fovereignty is Jubjecled to our throne ! ! ! " — 
Sabine's Hilt. Chrift. Church, chap. L p. 553. 



Fathers of the Oratory. 159 

with the Moft Rev. Dr. Folding, at the ex- 
prefs requeft of the Sacred Congregation." 

The Fathers of the Oratory* 

AMONG the moft remarkable of the 
religious affbciations which arofe in 
defence of the church during the time of 
Luther, and have fprung up in this country 
in our own day, may be reckoned that of the 
Oratorians, or Fathers of the Oratory. This 
inftitute was firft founded in Italy by Philip 
Neri, the lingular incidents and extraor- 
dinary exploits of whofe life are not without 
intereft ; a few of which will doubtlefs prove 
entertaining to the curious reader. 

Neri, or Nerius, was born in Florence, 
A. d. 15 15, during the pontificate of Leo X; 
His father followed the occupation of an at- 
torney, and was a great friend of the monks, 
efpecially the Dominicans. His mother was 
the defcendant of a noble family who held 
diftinguiftied office^ in the ftate during the 
time of the republic. Philip, who was the 
youngeft of four children, manifefted during 
boyhood a precocity of mind and quicknefs 
of perception unufual in perfons of fuch 



160 Monafkic Injiitutions . 

tender years. To thefe may be added confi- 
derable fufceptibility and a docile and obedient 
difpofition. So fubmiflive was he, it is faid, 
to his father, that he caufed him only on one 
occalion fome flight uneafinefs. The caufe 
was this : Happening one day to be finging 
pfalms with a younger member of the family, 
his eldeft After Caterina teafed and tormented 
him, upon which he gave her a flight puili. 
This acT: fo difpleafed his father that he 
chaftifed the delinquent, who repented even 
to tears of his mifdeed. The ftri&nefs with 
which he followed his mother's injunctions 
was not only exemplary but fcrupulous. If 
me directed him to remain in a certain place, 
nothing could induce him to quit it without 
her exprefs permiflion. He was equally 
dutiful to his ftep-mother, who upon her 
death-bed declared that his very remembrance 
was to her a confolation. His comrades 
nicknamed him " The good Pippo," owing 
to the blandnefsof his manners and theblame- 
leffhefs of his life. One of his biographers 
informs us that, " One day when he was 
about eight or nine years old, he faw an afs 
ftanding in the court-yard, and with a boy's 
thoughtleflhefs jumped upon its back. By 
fome accident he and the beaft both fell down 



Fathers of the Oratory. 161 

a flight of ftairs into the cellar. He was 
cruflied beneath the afs, and no part of his 
body was vifible except an arm. A woman 
who witnefTed the accident ran to him and 
drew him from under the animal, not as (he 
fuppofed killed or maimed, but fafe and found, 
without the leaft veftige of his fall." # It is 
further related that, " Once returning from 
the Zecca to the Petti palace, near which he 
was born and dwelt, he loft a gold necklace, 
but no fooner had he prayed than he found it. 
At another time he recovered by the fame 
means fome things which had dropped from 
under his arm a great way off"."f 

Neri when a boy made confiderable pro- 
ficiency in rhetoric and other fciences under 
the tuition of Clementi, a man of fome noto- 
riety in his day. At the age of eighteen, 
when his grammar ftudies were completed, 
he was fent to refide with a wealthy uncle, 
named Romulo, who intended him for his heir. 
Not relifhing however the fort of fociety into 
which he was thrown, and fearing the allure- 
ments of the world, he fhortly quitted his 
uncle's roof and travelled to Rome a friend- 



* F. Bacci's Life of St. Philip Neri. Trans, from the 
Italian by F. W. Faber, prieft of the Oratory, vol. i. 
f Ibid. 

M 



! 

1 62 Monajlic Injiitutions. 

lefs pilgrim, apparently without objeft or 
plan. Here he entered the houfe of a Floren- 
tine nobleman, named Galeotto Caccia, who 

. ... . 

took a great intereft in his juvenile but eccen- 
tric protege. Shortly afterwards he com- 
menced fuch a courfe of exceffive abftinence 
and led fo rigid a life, that not only in Rome 
but at Florence he attracted public attention. 1 
His chief food was a little bread and water 
daily, to which with difficulty he was induced 
to add a few olives and fome herbs. To 
fuch a degree did he carry his poverty, that 1 
before he left his home he would accept of 
nothing from his father but a couple of fhirts. 
His chamber, which was a fmall apartment, 
contained fimply a meagre bed, a few books, 
and fome linen fufpended upon a cord againft 
the wall. Frequently he fpent whole nights 
in prayer ; and every day he vifited feveral 
churches, although they were miles apart and 
fome of them without the city. According to 
another biographer, Galloni, the divine love 
fo dilated his heart, that the griftle which con- 
nected the fourth and fifth ribs was broken, | 
which accident gave freer fcope for that organ 
to perform its fun&ions.* In this flate he 



* Acta Sanctorum, Maii, torn. vi. cap. i. (Vita S. 
Phiiippi Nerii.) 



Fathers of the Oratory. 163 

lived fifty years. So violently did his heart 
pulfate that whenever he preffed any of his 
difciples to his breaft, a remedy which they 
were wont fuccefs fully to employ when labour- 
ing under temptation, their heads bounded 
off from his body as though they had received 
a fevere galvanic mock. The internal fen- 
fation of heat which Philip conftantly felt 
was fo exceflive, that although aged he had to 
have recourfe even in rigid winters to light 
clothing, fpare diet, and cooling medicines. 
Befides, he ufed to fleep with his windows 
open all night, and have attendants to fan him 
while in bed. Shortly after Gregory XIII. 
made a law commanding all priefts to wear 
furplices in the confeffional, Philip happened 
one day to vifit the pope with his caflbck 
and other robes unfaftened. Upon Gregory 
requiring an explanation, Philip remarked : 
" Why, I really cannot bear my waiftcoat 
buttoned, and yet your holinefs will have it 
that I mail wear a furplice befides." " No, 
no," replied the pope, " the order was not for 
you ; do as you pleafe." * 

Neri, with fourteen or fifteen poor unlet- 
tered companions, organifed the foundation 



* Baca's Life of St. Philip Neri, trans, by F. W. Faber, 
vol. i. 



164 Monajiic Injiitutions. 

of a religious fraternity of the Pilgrims and 
the Convalefcents, ftill famous in Rome, in 
the church of our Saviour Del-Campo, a.d. 
1548. In 155 1, he was ordained prieft, 
being then thirty-fix years of age ; at which 
period he increafed the number and feverity 
of his aufterities. It is affirmed, that while 
faying mafs and during his devotions his 
body ufed occafionally to be elevated feveral 
yards high, and that a refplendent cloud 
would cover him all over and transform the 
crimfon of his veftments into a radiant white- 
nefs, his face meanwhile emitting a fiery 
brilliancy. # He is alfo faid to have been 

* We find the fame authentically attefted of many other 
fervants of God. St. Ignatius of Loyola was fometimes 
leen raifed in prayer feveral feet above the ground 5 his 
body at the fame time mining with light. The like eleva- 
tions are related in the lives of St. Dominic, St. Dunftan, 
St. Philip Beniti, St. Cajetan, Sr. Albert of Sicily, B. 
Bernard Ptolemsi, Inftituter of the Congregation of our 
Lady of Mount Olivet, etc. etc. Many of the authors of 
thefe lives, perfons of undoubted veracity, teftify that they 
were themfelves eye-witneffes of this fact 5 others were fo 
careful and diligent writers that their accounts cannot be 
doubted." Thus Trivet tells us that St. Richard, then 
chancellor to St. Edmund, archbifhop of Canterbury, one 
day opening foftly the door faw his archbimop raifed high 
in the air with his knees bent and his arms ftretched out ; 
but falling gently to the ground and feeing his chancellor 
he complained to him that he had hindered him of great 
fpiritual delights and comfort. (Trivet. Annal. p. 73. ad. am. 



Fathers of the Oratory. 165 

gifted with the fpirit of prophecy and miracu- 
lous difcernment, fo that he could penetrate 
the vifta of futurity, and difclofe the pent-up 
fecrets of hearts. Several parties whom he 
named were afterwards elevated to the rank 
of cardinals and popes as he had predicted. 
Others were reftored from ficknefs to health, 
etc. And with refpect to the fins of private 
individuals, he particularly detected thofe 
againft chaftity by the ftench which the 
perpetrators thereof exhaled.* 

Although the Congregation of the Oratory 
was begun in 155 1, when Philip collected 
together fome half-dozen difciples from the 
higher ranks, yet this fociety was not regu- 
larly eftablifhed until the year 1564. The 
name of the fraternity took its rife from the 
chapel or oratory at San Girolamo, where 
the fathers ufed to preach, pray, hear con- 



1240.) Dom. Calmet, an author ftill living, and a fevere 
and learned critic, allures us that he knows a religious man 
who in devout prayer is fometimes involuntarily raifed in 
the air and remains hanging in it without any fupport. 
(Calmet, DhT. fur les Apparitions, ch. a I.) See in the Life 
of St. Therefa, written by herfelf, how notwithstanding her 
refiftance, her body fometimes was raifed from the ground. 
— Note in Life of St. Philip Neri, by Alban Butler. 

* Ac"ta Sanctorum Maii, torn. vi. cap. xxvii. (Vita n. 
S. Philippi Nerii.) F. Baca's Life, trans, by Father Faber, 
vol. i. 



1 66 Monajiic Inftitutions. 

feffions, and perform other religious duties. 
According to Baronius,* who entered the 
Congregation at eighteen years of age, and 
fucceeded Philip as provincial, the fpiritual 
exercifes were as follows : When the com- 
munity had affembled in the chapel, a fhort 
time was firft fpent in mental prayer. Then 
Neri delivered a difcourfe ; after which fome 
portion of a pious book was read, upon which 
palling comments were made. When the 
reading terminated, three of the fathers fuc- 
ceffively afcended the roftrum, and each gave 
an addrefs which occupied half-an-hour in 
delivery, either upon church hiftorv, ex- 
egetical theology, or elfe fome moral thefis, 
when the affembly broke up for the day.f 

The fociety which Philip Neri eftablifhed 
properly fpeaking was not a religious order, 
but fimply a body of fecular priefts, who 
although living, not neceflarily however, in 
community, were unbound by vows or 
oaths like the members of regular houfes. 
The fathers, however, ufed one common 
purfe and table. Pope Gregory XIII. gave 
this order his approbation, a.d. 1577, J 



* Created Cardinal in 1596, by Clement VIII. 

j- Annales Eccles. torn. i. p. 555. 

J Mofheim's Eccles. Hift, vol. iii. p. 27S. (Scarries.) 



Fathers of the Oratory. 167 

together with the newly built church of our 
Lady of Vallicella, of which poffeffion was 
taken in 1553. Philip lived to fee numerous 
houfes of his order eftablifhed throughout 
Italy, and efpecially in the Tufcan ftates. 
The Italian founder was cardinal Peter de 
Berulle. 

Philip ufed to relate the annexed event 
concerning F. Zenobio de' Medici, and F. 
Servanzio Mini, priefts of the oratory : — 
" Thefe two fathers had agreed together to 
hear each others' confeffions every night 
before they went to matins, in order that 
they might fay office with greater devotion. 
But the devil was enviou of fo much good ; 
and one night, about two hours before the 
ufual time, he knocked at the cell of Fra. 
Zenobio, faying, c Up quickly, it is time.' 
At thefe words the good father woke, got 
up, and went as ufual into the church, where 
he found the devil in the form of Fra. Ser- 
vanzio, walking near the confeffional. Be- 
lieving it was really his companion, he knelt 
down to confefs, and the devil fat down as 
if to hear the confeffion, and at each fault 
which Fra. Zenobio named, he cried out, 
c It is nothing, it is nothing.' At laft the 
friar adding a fault which feemed to him of 
a fomewhat more grave character, the devil 



1 68 Monajiic Injiitutions. 

ftill faid, c It is nothing.' When Fra. Ze- 
nobio heard this form of fpeech he bethought 
himfelf a little ; and fufpecting, not without 
reafon, fome diabolical illufion, he at once 
made the fign of the crofs, faying, 4 Perhaps 
you are a devil from hell ; ' at which words 
the evil fpirit was confounded, and immedi- 
ately difappeared." * 

It is recorded that at one time when St. 
Philip lay dangeroufly ill with a tertian fever, 
and his life was defpaired of by his phyficians, 
he was fuddenly reftored to health by an ap- 
parition of the Virgin Mary. While his 
medical attendants and others were in the fick 
man's chamber momentarily expecting his 
death, they were fuddenly ftartled by hearing 
him vehemently exclaim : " 0 Sanclijfima 
Domina mea ! 0 pulcherrima^ et decora ! O 
Domina mea benedicla ! " " Ah my Madonna, 
my beautiful Madonna, my bleffed Madonna! " 
etc. Immediately the phyfician haftened to 
his couch, drew afide the curtains, and found 
their patient in an ecftacy, with his hands 
lifted up towards heaven, his body elevated 
a foot above the bed, and apparently in the 
acT: of tenderly embracing fome one, at the 



* Bacci's Life of St. Philip Neri, trans, by F.W. Faber, 
vol. i. 



Fathers of the Oratory. 169 

fame time faying : <c Non fum dignus, non fum 
dignusy Ecquisego fum> Domina mea dulciffima^ 
ut venias ad me?" " Who am I, my dear 
Madonna, that you mould vifit me and take 
away my pain ? " The fpe£tators at this 
were aftonifhed, as well they might, while 
fome of them could not refrain from fhed- 
ding tears. Having come to himfelf, Philip 
explained to the phyficianswhat had occurred 
to him, and then difmifled them, obferving, 
" I have no further need of your fervices, 
for the Madonna has come and healed me." 
They then felt his pulfe, and were amazed 
to find that the fever had entirely left him. 
Next morning he arofe perfectly cured. This 
is faid to have been attefted upon oath by 
Galloni and the four phyficians who were 
prefent.* 

Early the following year (a.d. 1595) he 
was again attacked with fever, accompanied 
by haemorrhage of the lungs. After fome 
weeks of violent fuffering, having received 
extreme unftion from Baronius, and the viati- 
cum from Cardinal Borromeo, he expired on 
the 26th May, as he had three years before 
predicted, being fourfcore and two years old. 



* Gallon! and Baccius, 1, 4, c. ii. A&a San&orum, Maii, 
torn. vi. chap, xxxiii. (Vita S. Philippi Nerii.) 



170 Monajlic Infiituttons . 

The very hour at which Philip died he is 
faid to have appeared to feveral nuns, and his 
biographers have taken the trouble to narrate 
even the converfations which took place on 
this occafion. With one religious however, 
named Sifter Vittoria de' Maflimi of the con- 
vent of St. Marta, who had been a penitent of 
his, he had rather a prolonged interview : u I 
have come," faid he, " to fee you before I de- 
part ; and you muft not lament at lofing me." 
The nun replied : " O my father, are you 
then going to heaven ? " Then Philip mowed 
her a field full of thorns, faying, " If you 
defire to come where I am going, you will 
have to pafs through this." At this the virgin 
began to weep and faid : " My father, I mail 
never fee you more !"* A great concourfe 
of people, among whom were feveral cardi- 
nals, monks, and people of diftinc~tion, came 
to fee his body when expofed to view in the 
church, where feveral miracles are faid to 
have been wrought. 

There is one circumftance, ho wever, worth 
recording. The evening following the expo- 
fition in the church, when the phyficians and 
furgeons were called in to zpo/t mortem exami- 



* Acta San&orum, Maii, torn. vi. cap. xxxiv. (Vita 
S. Philippi Nerii.) 



Fathers of the Oratory . 171 

nation in prefence of many fathers of the Con- 
gregation, in turning the body the deceafed man 
with his own hands fheltered and protected 
thofe parts which modefty ufually conceals, 
in the fame way as a living perfon would, 
and the like occurred when the fathers were 
warning the body. Although the weather 
was fultry no foetid fmell, as is ufual in 
fuch cafes, was perceptible ; and fome of the 
byftanders declared that it emitted a fweet 
and agreeable odour. Upon opening the 
body the furgeons found that the fwelling 
under his left breaft was owing to his ribs 
being broken, and the fkin projected to the 
bignefs of a man's fift. The praecordia was 
healthy, the heart unufually dilated, the great 
artery being twice its natural fize. No water 
was difcovered in the pericardium, and the 
ventricles of the heart contained no blood. 
From thefe poji mortem appearances the 
medical attendants inferred that the ardour of 
Philip's contemplation muft have been ex- 
ceflive. His heart and bowels were buried 
among the brethren of his order, while the 
body was placed in a coffin of cyprefs-wood 
and interred in a little chapel, the cardinal 
of Florence not deeming it expedient that he 
mould be laid in a common burial-ground. 
Seven years afterwards, a.d. 1602, one 



172 Monaftic Inftitutions. 

Nerus de Nigris, a Florentine noble, built a 
magnificent chapel, and beautified with coftly 
ornaments the church of the Oratory, to 
which the body of Philip was tranflated with 
great pomp and ceremony. At the exhuma- 
tion of the body it was found perfectly entire 
and incorrupt; when additional miracles were 
wrought at his tomb.* He was canonized 
by Gregory XV. a.d. 1622. 

An inftitute of St. Philip was eftablifhed 
in London fome few years ago by Fathers 
Newman, Faber, and one or two other 
Oxford clergymen, who had embraced the 
Roman form of chriftianity. At the time 
the Oratorians occafioned a good deal of 
comment, and even merriment ; for it was 
rather a novel fight in England, but efpecially 
in the metropolis, to obferve the fathers and 
brothers in their long, monkifli foutanes and 
broad-brimmed hats and " boy-like turn- 
down collars," parading the principal ftreets ; 
looking like the ghofts of paft ages in the 
fun-light of our civilization ! Several Con- 
gregations of the order have now been 
formed, of which the principal are in London 
and Birmingham. 



* Acta Sanclorum, Maii, torn. vi. cap. xxxv. (Vita S. 
Philippi Nerii.) 



Fathers of the Oratory. 173 

St. Philip is regarded as the reprefentative 
faint of modern times ; and even Father 
Faber does not hefitate to afTert that the 
antiquated idea of monafticifm has grown 
obfolete, needing a more vigorous, humane, 
and focial development. u If you read St. 
Bernard," he obferves, "you will fee that 
he feems to confider even falvation difficult, 
but perfection a dream out of the cloifter. 
This is the common language of the fpiritual 
writers of the middle ages : the cloifter 
means perfection ; the world is not to be 
leavened, or attempted to be leavened ; it is 
to be given up as an impracticable, hopelefs 
bufinefs. If you love God, you muft take to 
yourfelf the wings of a vacation, and fly away 
into the wildernefs or the monaftery. The 
church and the world were almoft fphered 
vifibly apart in thofe times. Look how dif- 
ferent St. Philip is ! Perfection for all dalles, 
in all ftates of life, under every poffible 
variety of circumftances. This was the great 
leflbn he was commiffioned to teach. Stay 
at home, keep as you are, mind your fpinning, 
marry and fettle, — thefe were houfehold 
phrafes with him ; for all he loved the reli- 
gious orders fo much. Look at the heights 
of perfection to which he. led people, and 



174 Monaftic Injiitutions. 

yet how mild, it might be called lax^ was 
the moral and afcetical theology he taught ! 
All has the indelible imprefs of the modern 
genius upon it. Look at his free manners ! 
He ufed to make his meditation fitting on a 
bench, and rocking to and fro, or lying on 
his bed ; he ufed to hear confeffions in bed ; 
he fet boys to play at c fives ' in the court-yard 
when they were wanting to go to confeffion ; 
and all this was in fober earneft, and meant 
fomething. Is this like a picture of a me- 
diaeval faint ?"* We moft certainly anfwer 
no. And here I cannot but admire the 
genius and jefuitry of that church which can 
thus become " all things to all men," and fait 
itfelffo admirably to the taftes, temperaments, 
characters ; nay, even prejudices and follies 
of all peoples and all times. The Oratorians, 
therefore, may be regarded as the Jefuits of 
England, who have come among our pro- 
teftant population with the exprefs view of 
profelytifing. Nor do they deny the purpofe 
of their million. Like the Jefuits theypraclife 
moft of their fubtle artifices ; but unlike 
them, they will not condefcend to duplicity 



* Spirit and Genius of St: Philip Neri. Ey F. W. 
Faber, Prie£ of the Oratory. 



Fathers of the Oratory. 175 

or fecrecy. They tell us plainly that they 
have a work to do in this country among 
our toiling myriads and our poor neglected 
factory children. They have come, they 
tell us, " to play at double or quits with the 
devil;"* that proteftantifm is "nafcent," 
is, in fact, " behind its time," that " St. 
Philip's outward drefs, no lefs than his hidden 
fpirit, fits England to a nicety;" and that 
" if the land had been meafured for him and 
for his Oratory the fit could not have been 
completer." f They inform us, moreover, 
that England's grand need at the prefent 
day is not an effective adminiftration, or a 
national fyftem of education, a cricket-club, 
or a Victoria park, but — St. Philip and a 
fociety of Oratorians ! 

But do thefe u miflioners" expect fuccefs ? 
That they do. Hear Mr. Faber :— « If St. 
Philip can catch but feven thoufand men up 
and down the metropolis and the manu- 
facturing towns, we mail have in England as 
great a number of the right kind of men 
as there were children of Ifrael, the ftrength 
and leaven of the land, who in the bad times 



* Effay on Catholic Home Millions, by Father Faber. 
j" Spirit and Genius of St. Philip Neri, by Father Faber. 



176 Monaftic Injiitutions. 

of Ahab had not bowed their knees before 
Baal. He can have but little confidence in 
St. Philip, who can defpair of his doing at 
leaji this /"* Again he informs us that the 
fhepherdlefs youth of our overgrown towns 
is Philip's flock ; that that flock will hear and 
know his voice, though having never heard 
or known it before, and gather together in 
peace and joy and gay liberty round the dear 
old faint. " One fuch troop," he remarks, 
" of factory youths in a dozen large towns, 
and St. Philip's work will be worth England's 
having." f It is clear, therefore, that the 
Fathers of the Oratory are very fanguine of 
their miflion, and that they regard it asno idle 
dream or Quixotic labour. The fame writer 
tells us that " there is a remarkable affinity 
between the Oratory and the Francifcan 
order!" but I am inclined to the opinion 
that it approximates clofer to the fpir.it and 
worldly craftinefs of the Jefuit — that in facT: 
its members are Jefuits under a nom deguife. 
Indeed, it is not denied that the exchange of 
good offices and even inftincliive fympathy 
is reciprocal between the Company and the 
Oratory. Where the Jefuits have been ex- 



* Spirit and Genius of St. Philip Neri. -f Ibid. 



Fathers of the Oratory. 177 

pelled, the Oratorians' occupied the vacant 
ground. It was and is fo in Spain, and I be- 
lieve in Mexico ; while in Florence the fathers 
are nicknamed the " confuls of the Jefuits," 
which order has long fince been driven from 
that ftate. 

As I have had but little opportunity of 
becoming perfonally acquainted with the Ex- 
ercifes of the Oratory, and as Father Faber 
ftates that " the beft defcription of thofe ufed 
in England is that given by Blanco White in 
his Autobiography/'* I cannot do better than 
tranfcribe the account furnimed by fo excel- 
lent, forcible, and unfectarian a writer : — 

" The fyftem of thefe Spiritual Exercifes 
is a mafterpiece of church machinery .... 
As the perfons arrived in the evening when 
the Exercifes were to begin, they humbly 
kiffed Father Vega's hand, and after the ex- 
change of a few words, each was fent to the 
room which he was to inhabit. Thefe rooms 
were generally double-bedded. Into them 
the whole company were diftributed, ufually 
in couples. But, according to the rules 
of the houfe, all converfation was forbidden 
between the inhabitants of the fame room, 



* Note in Effky on Catholic Home Millions. 
N 



1 78 Monaftic Injiitntions. 

technically called companions. Soon after this 
domeftic arrangement was over, a large bell 
announced the firft meeting in the chapel. 
That place was kept nearly dark. A lantern, 
clofed on all fides but one, threw its light on a 
ftatue of Chrift expiring on the crofs. As the 
object of the fculptor was to ftrike the fenfes, 
without any regard to tafte, the ftatue was as 
large as life, with glafs eyes, and the body fo 
coloured as to reprefent flefti fprinkled here 
and there with blood. After the congrega- 
tion had taken their feats in profound filence, 
one of the affiftant priefts read the fubjecl: of 
meditation. This reading lafted half an hour. 
At the end of it all knelt. For about a quarter 
of an hour nothing was heard but the pendu- 
lum of the clock which was to meafure a full, 
hour for meditation. Aware, however, that 
moft of his fpiritual patients would lofe them- 
felves in reverie if left entirely to their own 
thoughts, Father Vega affifted them with 
what in the language of afceticifm are called 
ejaculations. It feemed as if his thoughts, 
growing too big and vehement to be contained 
in his breaft broke out in fpite of himfelf. 
At firft thefe were ftiort, and came at long 
intervals ; but they gradually grew more 
frequent and longer; till, near the end of 



Fathers of the Oratory. 179 

the hour, and juft before the congregation 
were allowed to rife from their knees, the 
monotonous chant of the ejaculations was 
changed into agonizing fcreams, accompanied 
with a loud fmiting of the breaft, in which 
the congregation joined, as they were moved ; 
mo ft of them repeating the words of the di- 
rector, and loudly calling for mercy. 

" But the effects of Father Vega's art were 
not feen in full force at the firfl: meeting. 
He knew the human mind too well to at- 
tempt the application of a fudden impulfe 
which might produce recoiling. As the fame 
congregation were to remain under the opera- 
ration of his fpells till the tenth day after their 
entrance, he could operate at leifure. Dur- 
ing that time the exer chants were not allowed 
to go out of the houfe, nor to fee their near- 
eft relations except for a few minutes, once 
or twice the whole time. The hour of rifing 
was five o'clock in the morning. The em- 
ployment of the day confifted of three hours 
of meditation at different times : one hour of 
reading the life of a faint, to which all attended 
in chapel : and laftly, juft before fupper and 
retiring to fleep, an extempore fermon by 
Father Vega, which lafted about an hour 
and a half. 



i s o Monaftic Inftitutiom . 

" Nor was this ftricr, and uninterrupted 
difcipline the only means employed to agitate 
and fubdue the mind. There was a gra- 
duated fcale of fpiritual terrors, which, when 
raifed to a certain pitch, made way to a gleam 
of affecting jo v. The third day of the ex- 
ercifes was known to be the moft terrific. 
The fubjecr. appointed for that day was the 
eternity of punimment. I cannot give an 
idea of the ingenuity employed in ftriking the 
imagination by means of this awful fubject. 
Whatever can be conceived to torture the 
body and agonize the foul, all was defcribed 
in the moft vivid colours. In the morning, 
the reading and meditation turned upon the 
confignment of a wicked foul to hell. The 
howling of the evil fpirits, as they celebrated 
their triumph ; the hrft plunging of the 
wretched being into the flames ; its cries of 
defpair ; its blafphemies againft heaven ; the 
applaufe with which the moft horrible ex- 
preffions were received by the devil and his 
angels— all were given with {hocking minute- 
nefs. The ejaculations of the director added 
touches of lurid light to the picture ; and yet 
he would not conclude by imploring mercv. 
That word could not pafs his lips. His voice 
gradually funk, while fighs and fobs grew 
louder and louder around him. Perceiving 



Fathers of the Oratory. 181 

the moment when terror was at its higheft 
he fuddenly affumed a compofed and almoft 
familiar tone, affuring his hearers that under 
the prefent impreffions of his mind, oppreffed 
and finking as it was under the idea of fin 
and its appropriate punifhment, it was im- 
poffible for him to fpeak of hope, of mercy, 
of forgivenefs. He muft, therefore, difmifs 
his hearers abruptly, and leave them to their 
own thoughts. He then clapped his hands, 
the ufual fignal for departure, and retired into 
the veftry. As the congregation crofTed the 
fmall quadrangle before the chapel, on their 
way to their rooms, you might think you faw 
forty or fifty prifoners who had received fen- 
tence of death the moment before. Some 
held their hands before their eyes, and fcarcely 
could keep themfelves from crying aloud. 
Others looked down on the ground in the 
attitude of utter defpair. All feemed abforbed 
in grief. 

u The fcene was however, very different 
in the evening. The reading, preparatory 
to meditation, was of hope and mercy. The 
ejaculations opened in a tone of voice which 
foothed the heart, fo lately harrowed with 
terror. A frefh flood of tears was now feen 
to flow from the eyes of the congregation ; 
but they were tears of gratitude, of tender- 



1 82 Monaflic Injiitutions . 

nefs, of love. A mere reaction of feeling 
might eafily account for this change, but this 
reaction was not left to chance. The very 
afpecSt of the chapel fecured it. It was not 
a gloomy vault as before. There were wax 
candles upon the altar, amongft which a 
fmiling picture of the Virgin Mary feemed to 
greet the diftreffed penitents as they came in. 
The Virgin was indeed the principal, the all- 
engroffing object of that evening. The direc- 
tor's addreffes to her as the hour of medita- 
tion was waning, were thofe of an enthufiaftic 
lover, wooing his fovereign princefs. In the 
midft of thefe raptures, the found of mufic 
was heard from a gallery at the further! end 
of the chapel. Several voices, accompanied 
by inftruments of different kinds, fang the 
praifes of the Virgin, the c Refuge of Sinners,' 
at the fame time Father Vega rofe from his 
kneeling pofture and taking up the pi£ture 
prefented it for a holy kifs to every one pre- 
fent. The mufic was generally drowned in 
the convulfive cries of the congregation. 
This was the appointed time to begin the ge- 
neral confeffions."* After fimilar exercifes, 



* Life of the Rev. J, Blanco White, written by himfelf. 
Edit, by J. H. Thorn, vol. i. pp. 38 — 42. 



The Society of Jefus. 183 

and when the appointed time had tranfpired, 
the congregation received the communion 
and fet out for their refpe£tive homes. 

The Society of "Jefus. 

THOUGH laft not leaft, I proceed to 
notice that arrogant, crafty, imperious, 
dangerous aflbciation charaderifed, though 
moft inappropriately, as the Society of Jefus, 
in portraying whofe hiftory many gifted pens 
have been employed ; of whom the nations 
of the world have unfortunately known fo 
much and yet underftood fo little ; which 
caufed the formidable Philip II. to fay, " Of 
all the religious orders that of the Jefuits is 
the only one which I cannot in the leaft com- 
prehend ! " It is really marvellous to con- 
ceive how any religious aflbciation of men 
could have attained to fuch influence, diftinc- 
tion, and authority, as virtually to guide the 
deftinies of empires and wield the fceptre of 
the world. This the Company did until the 
order became alike the terror of civilized and 
femi-barbarous nations : — 

" Black it flood as night — 
Fierce as ten furies — terrible as hell !" 



1 84 Monaftic Inftituttons. 

" There is not," remarks the hiftorian,* " in 
the annals of mankind any example of fuch 
a perfedt defpotifm exercifed not over monks 
fhut up in the cells of a convent, but over 
men difperfed among all the nations of the 
earth." 

And here it will be necefiary, in conformity 
with the plan already adopted, to give a brief 
fketch of the founder of this celebrated and 
extraordinary fociety. 

Ignatius Loyola, the youngeft fcion of a 
noble houfe, was born at the caftle of Loyola, 
in the diftri£t- of Guipufcoa, in Bifcay, Spain, 
a.d. 149 1. Although bred up in luxury, 
ignorancef and vice at the palace of Ferdi- 
nand V.,whofe page he was, our young knight 
manifefted an inclination for a life of adtion 
and valour not to be gratified in royal courts. 
Fired with the fpirit of chivalry, panting after 
fame, and excited by brilliant pictures of 
legendary romance, he embraced the profef- 
fion of a foldier, % after the example of his 
elder brothers, and dreamed delightedly of 
" war's alarums," hazardous adventures, 
valorous feats — 



* Robertfon. 

•f Mofheim's Eccles. Hift. vol. iii. p. 266. (Soames.) 
% Ada Sandlorum, Julii, torn. vii. § 111. (Vita S. Ignatio 
Loyola, Conf.) 



The Society ofjefus. 185 



<e Races and games 
Or tilting furniture, emblazoned fhields, 
Impreffes quaint, caparifons and {reeds, 
Bafes and tinfel trappings, gorgeous knights, 
At jouft and tournament." 

But the age of chivalry was gone when 
Boabdil furrendered Albayzin and Alhambra, 
and yielded up the keys of Granada to the 
Spanifh fovereigns. Confequently Ignatius 
was born in an epoch not only unfortunate 
for himfelf but for the world. 

In the year 1521, when Francis I. fent a 
powerful army into Spain, and the invading 
forces befieged Pampeluna, the capital of 
Navarre, Loyola, who had been left there 
by the viceroy not to command but to en- 
courage the garrifon, urged the befieged not 
to capitulate. They did fo, however, and 
opened the gates to the enemy. In order to 
maintain his own honour Loyola retired, with 
a folitary foldier who had the heart to follow 
him, into the citadel. Here the garrifon 
likewife deliberated upon furrendering, but 
he earneftly befeeched them to ftand their 
ground. Meanwhile the French foldiers at- 
tacked the place with great fury, when a 
breach was opened, to which Loyola quickly 
ruflied, fword in hand, along with the braveft 



1 86 Monaftic Injiitutions. 

of his little band, to drive back the befiegers. 
A mot from a cannon, however, caufed him 
to fall dangeroufly wounded, his left leg 
being bruifed by a fplinter of ftone, and his 
right leg broken and ftiivered by the ball itfelf. 
Upon feeing their leader {truck down, the 
garrifon furrendered at difcretion. # 

Ignatius met with confiderable attention 
and kind treatment at the hands of the vic- 
tors^ who had him conveyed to the general's 
quarters, and fubfequently removed him, in 
a litter carried by two men, to the caftle of 
Loyola, not far diftant. Here his furgical 
attendants informed him that, owing to the 
bones having been badly fet in the flrft in- 
ftance, combined with the ill effects of the 
jolting he had fuftained during the journey, 
it was neceffary that the leg mould be broken 
anew — an operation to which he fubmitted 
without a groan or even a murmur. A violent 
fever enfued, which had very nearly proved 
fatal. Indeed his life was defpaired of ; and 
it was by the mereft chance that he recovered. 
His reftoration to health is thus accounted for. 
One night when his death was momentarily 



* A£la San&orum, Julii, torn. vn. § in. (Vita S. 
Ignatio Loyola, Conf.) Bonhour's La Vie de S. Ignace. 



The Society of J f efus. 187 



expected he had a dream, in which St. Peter, 
to whom he was particularly devoted and 
once compofed a poem in his praife, ap- 
peared to him and cured him with his own 
hand. Upon waking he found himfelf out 
of danger, his pain left him and his ftrength 
returned ; " which event/' fays his French 
biographer, " (hows that this dream was no 
illufion."* The miracle at all events wrought 
no falutary change in his heart or difpofition, 
for he was frill as worldly, vain, and choleric 
as ever. The re-fetting of his leg happened 
to leave an unfightly deformity behind, as 
the end of a bone projected from under his 
knee. This protuberance he compelled the 
furgeons to faw away ; and during the dread- 
ful operation he would neither fuffer himfelf 
to be bound or held, and fcarce evinced the 
flighteft difcompofure under the painful or- 
deal. His only object in having recourfe to 
fuch an alternative was fimply the gratifica- 
tion of his exceffive vanitv, and in order that 
the elegance of his boot and flocking might 
not be marred, f The limb being contracted 



* Bonhour's La Vie de S. Ignace. 
t Bonhour's Ibid. Butler's Lives of the Saints, vol. vii. 
(St. Ignatius.) 



1 88 -Monajiic Injlit lit ions. 

he had it ftretched by a machine of iron, and 
for feveral days he would remain upon a kind 
of rack in exceffive agony, violently en- 
deavouring to lengthen it. But all thofe 
torturous efforts proved unavailing, and he 
remained a cripple for life. 

Pending the cure of his knee he was con- 
fined to bed ; and in order to relieve his 
turpid and troubled fancy he afked for a book 
of romances, as his literary taftes predifpofed 
him to admire works of knight-errantry. 
The caftle of Loyola not being able to fur- 
nifli what he defired, the lives of the faints 
and a life of Chrift was brought him inftead. 
He perufed thefe books at firft merely as a 
paftime ; but afterwards he betook him feri- 
oufly to their ftudy. Having confidered the 
example of the ancient hermits who forfook 
human habitations and buried themfelves 
alive in dens and caves, where they led ab- 
ftemious and rigorous lives, he faid within 
himfelf, " Thefe men were of the fame frame 
as I ; why then mould not I do what they 
have done ? " He almoft immediately thought 
of making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, 
and becoming a hermit, but his exceffive 
worldlinefs, and an amour which he had 
formed for a rich Caftilian lady, made him 



The Society of Jefus. 4 \ 89 

vacillate in his refolution until he had again 
taken up the extraordinary book which finally- 
worked his converfion, and caufed all vicifli- 
tude and fluctuation of mind to depart. He 
even then began to pra£tife fome of the 
aufterities of thofe heroes whofe hiftories 
he ftudied — treated his body with exceffive 
rigour — praclifed midnight vigils — and wept 
tears of compunction for hours infucceflion.* 
This was the turning point in his life — an 
eventful one as everybody knows ; one, 
moreover, which has peculiarly verified the 
faying of Voltaire : " Would you gain a great 
name be completely mad : but of a madnefs 
befitting the age. Have in your folly a bot- 
tom of reafon to guide your ravings, and be 
exceflively ftubborn. It may chance that 
you get hanged; but if you are not you may 
have an altar ! " f 

He now began to fee vifions and hear 
noifes. His already heated imagination be- 
came additionally inflamed upon the perufal 
of the biographies of fuch fanatics as Anthony 
and Paul. Devils tormented him and fhook 
the apartment which he inhabited, until the 



* Butler's Lives of the Saints. (St. Ignatius.) Vol.vii. 
t Diet. Philofoph. torn. x. Ignace. 



190 Monajlic Injiitutions. 

windows were broken and a rent was made 
in the wall, which remains to this day, fays 
the lateft writer of his life.* Another time 
the Virgin appeared to him environed with 
light, holding the infant Jefus in her arms ; 
which vifion filled his foul with infinite 
pleafure and rendered earthly objects infipid 
to him ever after. 

Fired with the chivalric idea of becoming 
a faint outright Ignatius quitted the caftle of 
Loyola, on pretence that he was about to 
vifit the duke of Najara, who during his 
convalefcence had frequently come to fee 
him ; fent back his fervants upon arriving at 
a certain road, and betook himfelf to the 
Benedictine monaftery of Montferrat, a 
place then very famous. Before prefenting 
himfelf to the abbot, he purchafed in the 
town a long coarfe garment, a girdle, fandals, 
a wallet, and a ftaff, intending a pilgrimage 
to Jerufalem as foon as he had finifhed his 
devotions in the chapel of the Benedictines. 
Having attired himfelf in thefe ftrange habili- 
ments, he gave his rich clothing to a beggar, 
who afterwards was imprifoned on fufpicion 
of having- ftolen the fame. Ignatius then 



* Butler's Lives of the Saints, vol. vii. (St. Ignatius.) 



The Society of "J ejus. 191 

proceeded to the monaftery and had an in- 
terview with the abbot Chanones, to whom 
he unbofomed his heart and narrated the 
plan of aufterities which he propofed to 
pradtife. The venerable monk encouraged 
the young faint, and after a fojourn of three 
days in the cloifter, during which time he 
made a general confeffion of his fins to the 
abbot, he vowed perpetual chaftity, dedicated 
himfelf to heaven and the Virgin, gave his 
horfe to the monaftery, and, like a true 
knight, hung his fword on a pillar by the 
altar, in teftimony of his unalterable devo- 
tion to the caufe he had embraced.* 

He next journeyed bare-headed and with 
one foot bare, the other being yet tender, to 
the hofpital of Manrefa, fome three leagues 
diftant from Montferrat. He entered here 
unknown, being in the difguife of a poor 
pilgrim. His only food now was bread and 
water, which he begged. On Sundays he 
extended his repaft by adding a few herbs 
which he firft fprinkled with afhes. He lay 
on the ground, flept little, wore an iron 
girdle and a hair fliirt, and every day fpent 



* A<5ta San&orum, Julii, torn. vn. § 4. (Vita S. Ignatio 
Loyola.) Bonhour's La Vie de S. Ignace. 



192 Mo?zaJiic Injiitutions. 

feven hours on his knees. In addition to 
thefe mortifications he affected to be a 
clown, went begging about the ftreets, his 
face fmeared with filth, his hair difhevelled, 
and his beard and nails grown out to a 
frightful length, the very model of the fated 
Nebuchadnezzar ! Children ufed to throw 
ftones at him, — and no wonder ! — and fhout 
after him fcornfully as he paffed along. Yet 
fo far from being any way annoyed at thefe 
contumelies, he rather courted and rejoiced 
in them. Afterwards he fecreted himfelf in 
a dark deep ravine covered w 7 ith thorns, half 
a mile from the town, called the Vale of 
Paradife, where by ftieer accident he was 
difcovered almoft dead, and taken back to 
the hofpital. 

The workings of his morbid imagination 
had induced acute hypochondriafes, which 
difciplines and long failings tended rather to 
aggravate than diminim ; although as Cole- 
ridge fays, " A man who is full of inward 
heavinefs, the more he is encompaffed about 
with mirth, it exafperates and enrages his 
grief the more ; like ineffectual weak phyfic, 
which removes not the humour, but ftirs it 
and makes it more unquiet." # Ignatius, 



* Aids to Reflection, Aphorifm x. (Moral and Religious.) 



The Society ofjefus. 193 

however, found no nepenthe, no cordial able 
to a£l upon his agitated fancy, which already 
rendered him miferable through religious 
fcrupulofity, and was faft hurrying him to the 
brink of defpair. The Dominican monks, 
who compaffionated his condition, received 
him out of charity into their convent at 
Manrefa, where his mental diforders reached 
a crifis. Finally, he became the fubje£t of 
heavenly raptures, when his malady depart- 
ed ; and the fecrets of the divine myfteries, 
efpecially that of the Trinity, were fully re- 
vealed to him. But the fupernatural know- 
ledge which he acquired during his long 
ravifhments was only made known to the 
pious abbot of Montferrat and the Domi- 
nican of Manrefa.* This remarkable wifdom 
certainly prefents a ftriking contraft to the 
grofs ignorance of moral duties which he 
difplayed when he fet out on his journey to 
the mrine of the Benedi£tine monaftery; 
and when having met with a poor Morefco, 
or Mahometan, who fpoke contemptuoufly 
of the Virgin, deliberated within himfelf 
whether, being a foldier, he was not juftified 



* A&a San&orum, Julii, torn. vn. § v. (De S. Ignatio 
Loyola, Conf.) 



194 ' Monajiic Injlitutions . 

in taking the blafphemer's life. The folution 
of this moral problem he left to fate to decide 
by dropping his horfe's bridle, being deter- 
mined, mould the horfe turn round, to perpe- 
trate the dread deed. The animal, happening 
to be more merciful than its matter, purfue * 
the onward road, and thus faved the life of ! 
human creature ! 

Loyola next fet about compofing hi 
Spiritual Exercifes, which he fubfequenth 
publifhed in Rome in 1548. This extraor- 
dinary compofition produced fevere criticifms 
in fome quarters, and pofitive fault was found 
with it. To remedy this, Francis Borgia 
prevailed on pope Paul III. to give the work 
his approbation, which was accordingly done 
in a brief iffued during the fame year. 

The authorfhip of the Exercifes has given 
rife to much controverfy. Cajetan, the 
Benedict ine, affirms this book to have been 
written by Garcias Cifneros, the abbot of 
Montferrat ; a circumftance not at all im- 
probable, confidering the intimacy and con- 
fidence which exifted between the monk 
and his young difciple. Even Alban Butler 
admits, that Ignatius " had no tin&ure of 
learning." How, then, could he poflibly 
have compofed fo elaborate a work ? How- 



The Society of J ejus. 195 

ever, his biographers labour ftrenuoufly to 
refute all fuch charges, and claim for Loyola 
the honour of the production.* 

After the plague which vifited Italy had 
abated, Ignatius fet out from Manrefa on 
1 pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Having 
net with a fliip at Venice, to which port 
Tie had travelled on foot, bound for Cyprus, 
ae embarked. During the voyage he fo 
enraged the failors by his ill-timed reproofs, 
that they confpired to fet him afhore upon 
a defert ifland ; but a fudden guft of wind 
fortunately prevented the fhip from touching 
upon it, thereby fruftrating their machina- 
tions. After landing at Cyprus he fet 
fail for Joppa, Auguft 1523, in company 
with feveral others bent on a fimilar mif- 
fion. From thence he journeyed to Jeru- 
falem, and arrived there in four days. He 
was then feized with the idea of convert- 
ing the Mahometans, but the provincial of 
the Francifcans, by virtue of his authority 
held from the pope, ordered him to quit 
Paleftine without delay. Ignatius obeyed 
the harm mandate ; but ftole privately back 



* Vide A&a San&orum, Julii, torn. vii. § vi. (De S. 
Ignatio Loyola, Conf.) Bonhour's La Vie de S. Ignace. 



196 Monajlic Injiitutions. 

to Mount Olivet, in order to fatisfy his 
devotion by kifling the foot-prints of the 
Saviour's feet ! 

At the beginning of the year 1524, he 
returned to Venice, and from thence jour- 
neyed on foot to Barcelona. Here he thought 
of becoming an ecclefiafHc, and in order to 
qualify himfelf for the facred office, entered 
upon " the purfuit of knowledge under dif- 
ficulties." In fine, he began the ftudy of 
grammar at the age of three-and-thirty, under 
the tuition of one Jerome Ardebal, in the 
mean time fubfifting by the charities of a 
benevolent lady named Ifabel Rofella. In this 
new and, to him, particularly dry ftudy, he 
made little or, more truly, no progrefs. So 
full was his mind of the divine that he could 
not be brought to learn any fecular fcience. 
For example, when conjugating the verb 
Amo, I love^ he could only repeat, " I love 
God," or, " I am loved by God ! " Likewife 
at the univerfity of Alcala, where he attended 
lectures upon logic and divinity, his " con- 
fufion became worfe confounded;" for the 
multiplicity of fcientific terms which he heard 
fo turned his brain into a fort of chaos, that 
he verily learned nothing at all, although he 
ftudied laborioufly day and night. His ex- 



The Society of J ejus. 197 

ceflive ftupidity became fo notorious that the 
little boys, his fchool-fellows, ufed to laugh and 
jeer at him for his ignorance, but their taunts 
he received with joy. Butler relates, that 
once " hearing that a poor man called Lafano 
had hanged himfelf on a beam in his chamber, 
he ran to him, cut the rope, and prayed by 
him till the man returned to himfelf, though 
he had before feemed perfectly dead to all 
byftanders. Lafano made his confefiion, 
received the facraments, and foon after ex- 
pired. This fa£b was attefted in the city as 
miraculous."* 

At Alcala, Ignatius was accufed before the 
bifhop's grand-vicar of having taught herefy, 
and was fentenced to forty-two days' folitary 
imprifonment ; although his difcourfes are 
faid to have converted a number of loofe 
livers, and among the reft, one of the moft 
wealthy prelates in Spain. Driven about 
and finding no reft, like the fated Oreftes 
purfued by the Furies, he arrived at Paris 
in February, 1528. In this city he fpent 
two years learning Latin and graduating in 
philofophy. Firft of all he took up his abode 
in Montaigne college, but fome one having 



* Lives of the Saints, vol. vii. (S. Ignatius, C.) 



i9 8 Monajlic Injiitutions. 

robbed him of his effects, he removed to 
the hofpital of St. James, and fubfifted by 
beggary. Once he came to England, during 
the vacation, to obtain contributions from 
the Spanifh merchants fettled there. At the 
college of St. Barbara he had very narrowly 
efcaped a public whipping from all the 
inmates, as the principal thought his afcetic 
piety, and his religious tutelage of fome of the 
fcholars, interfered with their proficiency in 
learning. At the found of a bell the whole 
college aflembled in the hall, with rods in 
their hands, to fcourge this " corrupter of 
youth," who had been condemned to fuch 
fignal chaftifement. When the principal 
appeared in the hall, and the ftudents flood 
ready for action, awaiting but the word of 
command, they were amazed to find Govea, 
fo far from ordering flagellation, cafl: himfelf 
at the feet of Ignatius. Then rifing he 
pronounced him a faint ! This humiliating 
act of reparation was not without its effect. 
Several of his fellow-ftudents became attach- 
ed to him and his exercifes, and even the 
profeffors ufed occafionally to afk his advice 
on difficult fubjects. 

At the Dominican convent, to which 
Ignatius repaired to ftudy theology, he made 



The Society of Jefus. 199 

feveral conquefts, among the moll: remark- 
able of whom was the famous Francis 
Xavier, who afterwards occupied no mean 
poft in the fociety which Ignatius originated. 
The ftrange methods by which he fought to 
reclaim diffolute perfons are not the leaft 
remarkable incidents in his wonderful career. 
Upon one occafion, when he found a young 
man engaged in illicit commerce with a 
woman of the city, he flood in a frozen pond 
up to his neck ; and as the delinquent pafled 
by in the night, Ignatius cried out to him : 
" Whither art thou going ? Doft thou not 
hear the thunder of Divine juftice over thy 
head, ready to break upon thee ? Go then ; 
fatisfy thy brutifh paffion : here I will fuffer 
for thee to appeafe heaven ! " The lewd 
young man became firft affrighted, then 
penitent, and afterwards altered his life. 

Ignatius, with his companions Le Fevre, 
Xavier, Laynez, and a few others, numeri- 
cally not exceeding nine, formed the nucleus 
from which this coloffal fociety fprung. 
Having partaken of the facrament in the 
fubterranean chapel of Montmartre, each 
audibly pronounced a vow to renounce the 
world and preach chriftianity in Paleftine, 
or if this proved impracticable, to offer 



200 Monajlic Injlitutions . 

themfelves and their fervices to the pope, to 
be difpofed of at his pleafure. Thefe men, 
although of different nations, habits, difpofi- 
tions, and attainments, coalefced notwith- 
ftanding, and blindly devoted themfelves body 
and foul to their mafter Loyola, who after- 
wards enjoined his difciples to adopt the 
cognomen of the Society of Jefus. 

Shortly afterwards, the Venetians declared 
war againft the Turks ; fo that the darling 
projeft of Loyola became in confequence 
hopeleflly fruftrated. He accordingly fet out 
fingly for Rome to caft himfelf at the feet 
of the pope, as he had folemnly promifed 
fhould anything occur to interrupt his plans. 
On the road, and while Ignatius was praying 
in a little oratory, he fell into a rapture, 
during which he faw the eternal Father pre- 
fenting him (Ignatius) to his Son, who bore 
on his moulder a heavy crofs, and fhone 
with inexpreffible luftre. Addrefiing himfelf 
to Ignatius, he fweetly faid : " Ego vobis 
Komce propitius ero." " I will be favourable 
to thee at Rome !"* This vifion Ignatius 
made known to his followers, who became 



Bonhour's La Vie de S. Ignace. 



The Society of Jefus. 201 

infpired with greater confidence in the fuc- 
cefs of their leader's million. 

Paul III. received Ignatius very gra- 
cioufly, and rather encouraged his project 
than otherwife. Upon this he fummoned 
his difciples from Vicenza to the holy city. 
They fhortly followed and formed them- 
felves into a religious order. The pope 
directed three cardinals to examine the merits 
of the application made to him. Thefe at 
firft pronounced in oppofition to it, but were 
induced fuddenly — by a miracle of courfe ! 
—to alter their opinion. The pope then 
admitted into holy orders all thofe who were 
not priefts, and iffued a bull of conftitution 
for the Society dated the 27th of September, 
1540. This bull, however, was embarraffed 
by fome difagreeable reftrictions, one of 
which was that the number of the profeffed 
mould be limited to fixty. Three years 
after, a. d. 1543, thefe reftrictions were 
abolimed by another papal mandate, when 
Ignatius was appointed general. The famous 
Conftitutions were next framed, fome affirm 
by Ignatius himfelf, for which Pafquier pro- 
nounced him u one of the mo ft fubtle and 
fkilful politicians which his age produced." 
Others, however, among whom are writers 



202 Monajiic Injiituttons. 

of authority, deny his title to the compofi- 
tion,* although for two hundred years the 
world had not heard of it. The Society foon 
afterwards wonderfully augmented in power, 
affluence, and popularity. In lefs than half 
a century its profeffed members exceeded 
ten thoufand. A century later found it 
increafed to twenty thoufand, and feveral 
hundred colleges. Although the members 
of the Society fpread themfelves over the 
world, yet Ignatius continued to refide at 
Rome until his death, which took place on 



* Not only proteftants, but alfo many Roman catholics, 
and they men of learning and difcrimination, deny that 
Loyola had learning enough to compofe the writings 
afcribed to him, or genius enough to form fuch a fociety as 
originated from him. On the contrary, they fay, that fome 
very wife and extraordinary men guided and controlled his 
mind $ and *hat better educated men than he compofed 
the works which bear his name, See Mich. Geddes, 
Mifcellaneous TraBs, vol. iii. p. 429. Moft of his writings 
are fuppofed to have been produced by John de Palanco, his 
fecretary. See M. V. la Croze Hiftoire du Chrift } d'EtMopie, 
pp. 55, 271. His Spiritual Exercifes [Exercitia Spiritualia), 
the Benedictines fay, were tranfcribed from the work of a 
Spanifh Benedictine, whofe name was Cifneros. See 
Jordan, Vie de M. La Croze, p. 83. The conftitutions of 
the fociety, it is faid, were drawn up by Lainez and Salmeron, 
learned men among his firft aflbciates. See Hiftoire de la 
Compagnie de J ejus, torn. i. p. 115. — Note in Mofh. Ecclef. 
Hift. vol. iii. p. 268. (Soames.) 



The Society of jfefus. 203 

the 31ft of July, 1556, when his Company 
numbered over one thoufand perfons. He 
was beatified by Paul V. a. d. 1609 ; and 
finally canonized by Gregory XV. a. d. 
1622. Thus arofe the Society of Jefus ; an 
order that although fanned into being by one 
pope, yet had to be fupprefTed by another,* 
when the crowned heads of Europe, emperors 
of Afia, chieftains of Africa, and common- 
wealths of America, conjointly united in its 
condemnation. But as a modern writer 
wifely remarks : " The pope had fupprefTed 
the Society, but the Jefuits would never be 
fupprefTed. Expelled from their ftrongholds 
they foon threw up other entrenchments — 
as the terrible angel driven out of heaven 
flung himfelf into the Eden of the earth, 
where he quickly found a footing. "f 

As it would be prepofterous to attempt giv- 
ing anything like even a condenfed hiftory of 
this fingular fociety within our neceflarily cir- 
cumfcribed limits, I muft accordingly content 
myfelf (and fo I truft will the reader) with the 
account of the rife and eftablimment of the 



* Clement XIV. July, a.d. 1773. 
-f- The Novitiate, or the Jefuit in Training, by A. 
Steinmitz. 



204 Monajlic Injiitutions. 

order, which I have already furnifhed ; at the 
fame time referring thofe who feek further 
information as to the fubfequent workings of 
that famous body, to Mr. Steinmitz's Hijiory 
of the Jefuits ; a work of the moft talented 
and interefting kind. It may not however 
be out of place juft to record the reproach 
caft upon the Society by Clement VIII. in 
1692 — a pontiff who perfonally prefided at 
a general chapter of the order. " Curiofity," 
he obferves, " induces them to intrude every- 
where, and chiefly into the confeflionals, that 
they may afcertain from their penitent what- 
ever occurs in his home, among the children, 
the domeftics, and the other inmates or vifitors 
of the houfe, and even all that is occurring 
in the neighbourhood. If they confefs a prince 
they contrive to govern his whole family ; 
they endeavour even to govern his ftates 
by infpiring him with the idea that nothing 
can go well without their overfight and di- 
rection."* Really, upon reviewing the many 
fearful and fiery ordeals through which the 
Company has paiTed, there appears fome force 
in what its founder faid : " Being begun by 
God the Society muft be preferved by divine 



* Theatre Jefuitique, p. ii. 4. 



The Society of yefus. 205 

' and not human means."* u Ad major em Dei 
j gloriam" is a principle which, in the hands 

of the Jefuits, have been the bane and curfe 

of nations. 

The Jefuits have feveral inftitutes or col- 
leges in this and the fifter ifle ; the molt 
flourifhing of which are Clongowes, near 
j Dublin, and Stonyhurft in Lancafliire. The 
j latter was prefented to the Jefuits by Thomas 
; Weld, of Lulworth, who as an additional 
benefaction gave his fon to the Society. The 
Jefuits made confiderable additions to the 
property by building three eftablimments, 
viz., the houfe of Probation, the Seminary, 
and the houfe for the Profefled. Befides 
thefe a magnificent church has been erected 
— the whole beautified and enhanced by a 
charming demefne of fome thoufand acres of 
excellent land, f A new and fplendid church 
has lately been completed in the metropolis ; 
fo it would appear that the claufes in the 
Catholic Relief Bill of 1829, which contains 
fome provifions for the gradual extinction of 
Jefuitifm in this land, have remained literally 
a dead letter. " Wherever the Jefuits are 



* Conft. Lec. i. p. 61. 

f Vide The Novitiate 5 etc., by A. Steinmitz. 



206 Monaftic InJiitutio?ts. 

admitted," faid the emperor Napoleon, 
" they will be matters, coft what it may." * 

Internal Difcipline of Religious Houfes. 

THE rules relating to difcipline are pretty 
much alike in all conventual eftablifh- 
ments, with the exception of thofe of the 
Ciftercian and Oratorian orders previouily 
defcribed. From the following fuccincT: ac- 
count, the reader will be able to form a 
tolerably accurate conception of the daily 
monotonous routine of monaftic duties : — 

The" religious" are fummoned throughout 
the year at 5 a. m. to their diurnal exercifes,by 
the ringing of a large bell, the found of which 
not only diftincTdy reverberates along the 
corridors of the cloifter, but too often difturbs 
the adjoining neighbourhood, and proves a 
fource of annoyance to the inhabitants, who 
do not like their vigils to be thus fummarily 
interrupted by the harfh " ding-dong" of" the 
convent bell." In the dormitory there is an 
alarum-clock, which is fet over-night, and 
entrufted to the junior novice, who has to be 



* Recits de la captivite de l'Emp. Napol. a Saince 
Helene, par M. le General Montholon. 



Internal Difcipline. 207 

up a quarter of an hour before the reft of the 
community. Upon the firft found of the bell 
each one rifes, and after dreffing proceeds to 
thedomeftic chapel. During the winter feafon 
there is fome little inconvenience experienced 
as no lights are allowed. Five minutes after 
the bell rings the community are expected 
to be in their proper places, when the exer- 
cifes open with a meditation, which lafts 
nearly an hour. The fubjecl: of the medi- 
tation continually varies, and is conducted 
thus. The fuperior generally, or his deputy, 
reads in an audible voice fome fentence out 
of a book, which is prefumed to be filently 
reflected upon for a quarter of an hour, al- 
though one has occafionally a terrible com- 
bat with Morpheus, who too often becomes 
the victor ! Another fentence is then re- 
peated ; and fo on until the expiration of the 
allotted period, the religious kneeling and fit- 
ting alternately. At fix o'clock the "Angelus 
Domini" is faid, the large bell being kept 
ringing the while. Then begins the " office" 
of the church,* which occupies about thirty 
minutes, when the devotions are for a while 
interrupted. The community then retire 



* The Jefuits are relieved from the obligation of repeat- 
ing the daily office. 



208 Monajlic Inftitutions. 

to their refpe£tive cells, and the novices to 
their dormitory, when the procefs of drefling 
commences. During the ablution no part of 
the drefs is removed, it being confidered re- 
pugnant to modefty to act otherwife. The 
religious next hear mafs, which is celebrated 
by the chaplain either in the domeftic chape], 
in the church adjoining, or elfe in a conti- 
guous place of worftiip. The remaining 
portion of the morning is occupied in ftudy, 
fliort religious exercifes, and breakfaft. Dur- 
ing meals the flri&eft filence is obferved \ 
but in order to relieve the tedium which would 
otherwife exift, one of the novices reads a 
portion of fome book affigned by the fuperior. 
The remainder part of the day, until evening, 
is palled in the performance of duties pecu- 
liar to each religious fodality. The " bro- 
thers" and " fitters" of moft communities 
have the care of fchools, and the inftrucliion 
of adults, while other orders are devoted to 
external employments, fuch as vifiting and 
attending the fick, etc. And really, although 
I regard the monaftic fyftem as highly repre- 
henfible, yet I cannot but admire the moral 
heroifm of thofe unafluming women, many 
of whom forfake not only the comforts but 
the refinements and elegances of life, for 



Internal Difcipline. 209 

the hard pillow, the cheerlefs chamber, the 
frugal table, the plain attire, the ftringent 
rule, to foothe the pangs of fufFering — ad- 
minifter help to the deftitute — perform the 
meaner! offices for the fick — and pour the 
oil of joy into the mourner's bofom. Who 
that has obferved the nuns performing their 
voluntary offices of mercy, and contrafted 
them with the paid " fitters" of our hofpitals, 
but has been ftruck with the mild, affable, 
gentle, loving fpirit of the one, with the 
harfh, fevere, unwilling, unfeeling manner of 
the other ? And here I cannot refrain from 
paying a paffing tribute of refpect to our own 
Mifs Nightingale, whofe chivalrous felf-facri- 
fice, noble fpirit of endurance, and devotion 
to works of charity, deferve our higheft com- 
mendation, and mall for ever render her name 
emblazoned on her country's annals. 

But to refume. Two hours each day are 
fet apart for what is termed " recreation ; " 
and certainly fuch an arrangement is mod 
beneficial, as it renders the ennui and folitari- 
nefs of the cloifter more fupportable and, 
phyfiologically fpeaking,lefs injurious. There 
are fpecial exercifes for every hour ; fo that 
fuch a thing as leifure is practically unknown. 
At 9 p. m. the entire community affemble for 
p 



210 Monajiic Injiitutions. 

prayers — the profefTed in the domeftic chapel 
— the novices in their oratory — after which 
confeffions are publicly made of breaches of 
rule, the religious in turn proftrating them- 
felves in the middle of the chapel ; and upon 
begging for and receiving fuitable penance, 
kifs the floor in token of their acquiefcence and 
humility. Should they happen through over- 
fight or otherwife to neglect manifefting 
their confcience, there is generally fome per- 
fon prefent to make the imputation, as each 
one is continually watched by the other with 
fcrupulous exadlnefs ; and as individuals can 
fee the faults of others better than their own, 
this peculiarity is taken into account and em- 
ployed with advantage. At ten o'clock the 
community muft be in bed, when all lights 
are extinguifhed ; and in order to guard 
againft any innovation in this refpedT:, a party 
goes to the door of each cell, which is never 
fuffered to be clofed, and cries " Benedicamus 
Domino" This general falutation immedi- 
ately meets with the refponfe " Deo gratias" 
from the individual within. 

The regulations pertaining to novices are 
much more precife and rigorous than thofe 
laid down for the guidance of the profefTed. 
The former are not permitted to mingle or 



Internal DifcipHne. 211 

eonverfe with the latter, nor even (if the 
community be not what is called inclofed) to 
occupy the fame footway when outfide the 
precincts of the cloifter. On firft entering 
into the inftitute the fubject is embraced by 
the novices, and conducted to the apartments 
termed the " noviciate." After the expira- 
tion of a few days a u retreat" is entered upon, 
which lafts twenty or thirty days together, 
during which tirefome period the ftricteft 
filence is impofed. Human nature is fcarcely 
proof againft the pfychological and phyfical 
evils refulting from fo unremitting a courfe 
of mental exercifes as is affigned to poftulants 
during this and fucceeding feafons of trial, by 
the director of novices, who keeps a watchful 
and fcrutinifing eye upon all their actions. 

I well remember upon firft entering the 
convent being conducted to the noviciate by 
the mafter of novices, a grave, ftrict, but 
withal kind-hearted man, when my attention 
was directed to a ftatue of the Virgin, com- 
pofed of plafter-of-Paris, which flood upon 
a fmall altar at the extremity of the corridor. 
Fully cognifant of the diftrefling circum- 
ftances under which I had deferted the ma- 
ternal roof — for I confidered it a pious feve- 
rity and a pofitive duty to keep my mother 



2i2 Monaflic Infiitutlons . 



ignorant of the rafh flep I had taken* — my 
fpiritual director, in the moft folemn and im- 
preflive manner, thus addreffed me : — " You 
have, my dear young brother, voluntarily 
feparated yourfelf from your deareft connec- 
tions, clofed all avenues to diftinction and 
emolument which the great world opens up 
to talent, effort, and perfeverance ; and with 
a heroifm praifeworthy and even meritorious, 
have cut afunder even the ftrong ties of blood. 
But you have made a profitable exchange in 
forfaking an earthly for a heavenly parent." 
Then, pointing to the figure, he exclaimed : 
" Behold your mother now ! Her affection 
towards you will never become alienated or 
abated ; and if you but prove yourfelf a faith- 
ful imitator of her virtuous and angelic life, 
fhe will finally conduct you to glory I" I 
have frequently obferved the novices in the 
warmth and enthufiafm of their devotion, 
kifs with intenfe ardour the feet of this image 
of clay ; and none either pafTed or repaffed 
without making obeifance to the Madonna. 

* Si currerint tibi Pater et Mater ingrefiuro Monafterium, 
etmonflraverint ubera et lacrymis fuis te voluerint retrahere, 
contemne lacrymas, et conculca pedibus parentes, nudufque 
fuge ad crucem Chrifti. — Vox Hiercnimi ; impia hac et dia- 
betica 'vox Lutherus. 



Internal Difcipline. 213 

I can truly fay with Melancthon ; " I fhudder 
when I think of the honour which I paid to 
images when I was in the papacy." # 

After the expiration of a few months the 
poftulant receives the u habit " of his order, 
when an impofing and ad captandum cere- 
mony attends its reception. On this occafion, 
Arrange to fay, he renounces the name con~ 
ferred at baptifm, and a flumes that of fome 
faint, under the direction of the mafter, by 
which he is afterwards designated. It is a 
common occurrence for men to take women's 
names, and vice verfa. The monks having 
in heaven the Virgin Mary, the image of a 
woman — an image of love— can perhaps 
more eafily difpenfe with real women ; and 
juft in proportion as the ideal increafes in 
intenfity. The nuns, on the other hand, 
have in St. Jofeph an object of ideal love, 
which fupplies the natural craving after the 
human love. Mr. Steinmitzf alludes to this 
important pfychological fact — a fact, how- 
ever, by no means incomprehenfible, but per- 
fectly intelligible to thofe who are acquainted 
with the philofophy of the human mind. 

* Cohorrefco quando cogito quomodo ipfe accefTerim ad 
ftatuis in papatu. — Explicat. E<vang, 

+ Vide The Noviciate ; or a Year with the Englifh Jefuits. 



214 Monajlic Injiitutions. 

Strict difcipline regulates every movement 
of the young difciples. They are feldom 
permitted to go beyond the precincts of their 
gloomy dwelling ; and even when this privi- 
lege is extended, they are invariably accompa- 
nied by a profefled brother, though generally 
by the party to whom the refponfibility of 
their training is entrufted. During the pro- 
bationary term, which is ufually about two 
years, the novices are occafionally obliged to 
perform menial offices, fuch as cleaning their 
own (hoes, dufting the windows, fweeping 
the reception-rooms, weeding the garden, 
etc., in order to exercife them in humility 
and felf-denial. A neglect of the duty 7 im- 
pofed upon them would fubject the offenders 
to the mortification of taking their meals 
kneeling — a punifhment to which I was once 
fubjected — or to fome other penitential act. 
Habitual difobedience would either difqualify 
for profeffion, or elfe procure expulfion from 
the inftitute. " In a convent in the United 
States," obferves Cobbin, <c the inmates, for 
flight acts of difobedience, were fubjected to 
many auftere penances, as remaining proftrate 
for a length of time, making the fign of the 
crofs on the floor with the tongue, eating a 
cruft of bread for the morning's c portion,' 



Internal Difcipline. 215 

kiffing the floor, kneeling for a confiderable 
time, and other fimilar degradations."* 

The novices are feldom permitted to have 
interviews, or enter into correfpondence, with 
their neareft relatives ; nor are they fuffered 
to receive letters, unlefs fuch epiftolary com- 
munications be firft fubmitted to the ftrift 
furveillance of the fuperior. Not infrequently 
fuch correfpondence is not only Grahamifed, 
but pofitively fupprefTed. Any intercourfe with 
feculars, be they even one's parents, is con- 
fidered moft prejudical to the religious ftate. 
ff A religious," writes Liguori, u muft know, 
that he cannot write to his parents or friends 
without the permiffion of the fuperior, nor 
without mowing him the letters. To omit 
this would be a great fault, and one could 
not be excufed, but feverely puniflied ; as 
from hence a thoufand diforders might arife 
to occafion the ruin of the community. The 
novices above all ought to know, that dur- 
ing their noviciate this practice is moft rigor- 
oufly attended to, and it is fometimes with 
difficulty that they obtain permiffion to fpeak 
or write to their parents." f Neither is one 

* Book of Popery. 

t St. Alph. Liguori on the Religious State. Trans, from 
the Italian, by a Prieft of the Order of Charity. 



216 Mo n aft l c Injlitutions . 

brother allowed to hold converie with, or to 
enter the cell of another, except he has dire£i 
permiffion fo to do. Hence in monaftic 
communities all are ftrangers to each other ; 
and every impediment is placed in the way. 
of particular intimacies. Were fuch a thing 
however obferved, a remedy would fpeedily 
be applied by difpatching one of the parties to 
fome other and diftant inftitute of the order. 
By this means all caballings are prevented ; 
and I dare fay fuch an arrangement is found 
abfolutely neceffary to the maintenance of 
authority and healthy difcipline. Once in 
each day, or more frequently, the younger 
brothers are required to make a public mani- 
feftation of their faults to the m after of novices 
or his deputy ; and after receiving abfolution, 
and being enjoined a fuitable penance, they 
kifs the floor as an expreflion of their obe- 
dience. The habit of felf-denial is efpecially 
encouraged in the novices ; and is carried 
even to things innocent and harmlefs in them- 
felves. However excellent the principle of 
felf-denial is, yet the abufe of it is certainly 
condemnatory. For inftance, a religious is 
not fuffered to indulge curiofity, by gazing 
upon different obje&s when in choir or the 
refectory; to affume a flothful pofture in fit- 



Internal Difcipline. 217 

ting, fuch as leaning againft anything, putting 
one leg on the other, or croffing the feet. 
They are likewife encouraged to avoid dainty 
fruits, or whatever is calculated to pleafe the 
palate, even fhould fuch delicacies be placed 
upon the table. Everything that adminifters 
delight to the fenfes is regarded as fin, not 
excepting the very effential duty of eating ; 
and no one is fuffered to partake of food except 
at the appointed hour for meals. It is faid that 
when St. Therefa heard that fome of her nuns 
had afked permiffion from the provincial to 
keep edibles in their cells {he upbraided 
them very feverely, and faid that their requeft 
if complied with would lead to the deftruc- 
tion of the monaftery.* Perhaps there is no 
difcipline fo ftrongly encouraged as that of 
mortifying the fenfes, efpecially that of tafte. 
We may judge of this from the writings put 
into the hands of the religious, of which thofe 
of St. Liguori are the moft in vogue. This 
author fpeaking of the neceffity for fuch felf- 
denial, obferves : — "In his Dialogues St. 
Gregory relates, that in a monaftery of 
Sienna, there was a monk who led a very 
exemplary life. When he was at the point 



* Liguori's True Spoufe of Chrift, chap. viii. fee. n. 



2i 8 Monajiic Inftitutions. 

of death, the religious, expecting to be edified 
by his laft moments, gathered around him, 
' Brethren,' faid the dying man, c when you 
fafted I eat in private, and therefore I have 
already been delivered over to Satan, who 
now deprives me of life, and carries away my 
foul/ After thefe words he expired." The 
fame author relates, " that a certain nun, fee- 
ing in the garden a very fine lettuce, pulled 
and eat it, in oppofition to her rule. She was 
inftantly poflefTed by a devil who tormented 
her grievoufly. Her companions called to 
her aid the holy Abbot Equitius, at whofe 
arrival the demon exclaimed, c What evil 
have I done ? I fat upon the lettuce : Jf)e came 
and eat it. 9 The holy man by his com- 
mands compelled the evil fpirit to depart." 
In the Ciftercian records we read, that " St. 
Bernard, once vifiting his novices, called 
afide a brother whofe name was Acardo, 
and faid that a certain novice, to whom he 
pointed, would on that day fly from the 
monaftery. The faint begged of Acardo to 
watch the novice, and to prevent his efcape. 
On the following night, Acardo faw a demon 
approach the novice, and by the favoury 
fmell of a roafted fowl, tempt him to defire 
forbidden food. The unhappy young man 
awoke, and, yielding to the temptation, took 



Internal Difctpline. 219 

his clothes, and prepared to leave the monas- 
tery. Acardo endeavoured, in vain, to con- 
vince him of the dangers to which he would 
be expofed in the world. Overcome by 
gulofity, the wretched man obftinately re- 
folved to return to the world, where he died 
miferably."* The purpofe and tendency of 
fuch writings cannot be miftaken, nor can 
they fail to make the young and docile novice 
morbidly fufceptible on this point. It is fad 
that Religion which " never was defigned to 
make our pleafures lefs," mould be thus 
facrilegioufly tortured to fuit the afcetic taftes 
and abnormal tendencies of fome minds. 

In the domeftic chapel of each monaftery, 
which is often elaborately and fometimes 
gorgeoufly decorated, the confecrated bread 
is conftantly preferved, and a perpetual light, 
or veftal fire, kept continually burning before 
the altar. A brother is fpecially appointed 
to the duties of the facrifty, who has to attend 
to the trimming of the lamp, etc. Various 
facred relics, richly enlhrined, are placed on 
the altar, not fo much to attraft attention as 
to elicit pious and devotional feelings. + The 



* Liguori's True Spoufe of Chrift, chap. viii. fee. n. 
f The Pagans in like manner confecrated to their gods 
a variety of images, both embofTed and painted, and placed 



220 Monajiic Injiitutions. 

firft Sunday in each month, and the nine 
days preceding the feftival of the Incar- 
nation, are feafons of the greateft folemnity. 
The members of mo ft religious fraternities, 
as foon as profeffed, make perpetual vows of 
poverty, chaftity, and obedience. Some in- 
ftitutes are under the jurifdiclion of the pre- 
lates in whofe refpe£tive diocefes they are 
eftablifhed ; while others, like the Jefuit 
orders, acknowledge no authority fave that 
of their provincials and the pope. 

Having thus given a faint outline of the 
difcipline adopted in conventual eftablifh- 
ments, I would conclude with the remark, 
that there are in thefe inftitutes, many indi- 
viduals pofieffed of cultivated minds, un- 
tarnifhed morals, and enlarged hearts, the fin- 
cerity of whofe profeffion cannot for an inftant 
be difputed ; individuals moreover who, I 
hefitate not to affirm, were it not for the 
peculiar fyftem to which they are bound, 
would become luminaries of the firft magni- 
tude in the fcientific, and be ornaments and 
bleffings to the focial world. 

them in their temples, raifed them upon their altars, en- 
fhrined them in a coftly manner, crowned them with 
flowers, and invoked them with incenfe. — Huit Serm. fur 
VExamen des Religions, p. 264. edit. Geneve, 1716. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



The pernicious tendency of Monafticifm^ viewed 
in a focial^ moral^ phyfical, and political 
afpecl. 

" Separation from the world, from matter, from the Life 
of the fpecies has its pradlical realization in monafticifm." — 
Feuerbach. 

NOW proceed to exhibit a few 
of the more prominent evils of 
the monaftic fyftem— a fu per- 
flation begotten of ignorance and 
fanaticifm, in the formation and completion 
of which the demon of ingenuity had lent his 
willing aid, — which has long been foftered by 
a clafs of mifanthropic men, and held forth 
to the world as intrinfically noble and divine, 
fraught with the choicer! benefits to its pro- 
fefibrs, as well as to the community at large, 
and from which, to borrow the queftionable 
phrafeology of Dr. M'Hale, " the odour of 




222 Monajiic Injiitutions. 

fanftity is diffufed throughout the earth." 
But every unprejudiced mind, that has 
thoughtfully and thoroughly inveftigated mo- 
nafticifm in its bearings upon morals, fociety, 
and the individual, muft I am perfuaded form 
a very oppofite and a more correct concep- 
tion. For never, I am decidedly convinced, 
was there a fyftem devifed by the head and 
executed by the ftrategy of man, under the 
fpecious garb of godlinefs, from which fo 
many fad diforders, and fuch rank impiety 
have emanated. 

My future remarks I would have under- 
ftood as applying wholly and folely to modern 
monafticifm. After all, we have little to do 
with the monaftics of olden times. Their 
manner of life was juft in keeping with the 
ignorance, and confequent barbarities and 
vices of the ages in which they flourifhed. 
We mould not view the phafes of modern 
monafticifm through the falfe medium of the 
paft ; nor vifit the follies^immoralities, and 
crimes once characT:eriftic of the fyftem upon 
thofe who, not having been the perpetrators 
of fuch wickednefs, mould notbe participators 
in its condemnation. On this ground Am- 
ply I mould never have penned afyllable con- 
demnatory of the monaftic life. As well 



Their pernicious Tendency. 223 

and with equal propriety may Englifhmen at 
the prefent day be faddled with the grievous 
defects of our painted Saxon progenitors, or 
proteftant clergymen be denounced becaufe 
forfooth of the errors, ftiortcomings, or pof- 
fibly iniquities, of thofe who ufhered in the 
Reformation. I do not, however, mean to 
convey the impreffion, that ecclefiaftical hif- 
tory throws no light upon the injurious ten- 
dency of monachifm ; but merely ftate, that 
the fyftem has affumed a widely different 
afpect to that which it was wont to wear. 
Whatever be the caufe of this favourable 
transformation, the fact itfelf is patent. Un- 
doubtedly there ftill are men under the mo- 
naftic garb to whom the language of " the 
jolly friar" in the fong is painfully appli- 
cable : — 

" I'm clothed in Jack-cloth for my fin ; 
With old fack-ivine I'm lined within ! " 

thereby making " good cheer " their paflport 
to heaven ! Truly, he who leads a good life 
is fure to live well; and if " veiled nuns and 
cowled men " do not ftrictly act up to the 
fpirit of the axiom, they at leaft, fail not 
occafionally to lofe fight of it in its literal 
and grolTer figniftcation. But this peculiar 



224 Monajlic Injlitutions. 

fpecies of biped has always exifted, and 
will exift : and if fuch novelifts as Charles 
Dickens and Samuel Warren are of any 
authority, does not exclufively belong to 
" cloifters grey " or alone, " court the foli- 
tary fhade ! " 

The ecclefiaftical hiftorian, alluding to 
the morals of the monaftics of the xvith 
century, admits even an improvement at that 
period. He obferves : — " In molt of the 
governors of monafteries, there are things 
which deferve the fevereft reprehenfion ; nor 
are idlenefs, gluttony, ignorance, knavery, 
quarrels, lafcivioufnefs, and the other once 
prevalent vices of the monafteries, entirely 
expelled and banifhed from them. Yet it 
would be uncandid to deny, that in many 
countries the morals of the monks are re- 
ft rained by ftricter rules, and that the re- 
maining veftiges of the ancient profligacy are 
at leaft concealed more carefully.* Further 
improvements both in morals and difcipline 
have doubtlefs taken place fince. So that 
the grave crimes charged againft monaftics 
by fuch writers of celebrity and undoubted 
candour as have already been adduced, cannot 



Moiheim's Eccles. Hift. vol. iii. p. 275. (Soames.) 



Their pernicious Tendency. 225 

now be laid at their door. The light of the 
nineteenth century and the purifying radia- 
tions of the printing prefs have enlightened 
their darknefs — not altogether, but in part. 
Monafticifrn certainly is not that grofs, foetid, 
unfightly impofthume it was. Neverthelefs 
it muft not be approved of, or tolerated, but 
rather regarded with the greater fufpicion and 
abhorrence owing to the additional power 
which it in confequence exercifes. The 
fyftem is unnatural and injurious whatever 
be the practices of thofe who uphold it ; and 
is not fimply detrimental to the individuals 
themfelves, but proves a bane and a barrier 
to the well-being and progrefs of fociety. 
By its fliade a barren tree is pernicious not 
only to itfelf, but likewife to the fertile plants 
by which it is furrounded. 

I. Monafticifrn is productive of facial evils. 

We are not our own. Hence we cannot 
lawfully difpofe of ourfelves as we lift. So- 
ciety, home, kindred, the manifold relations 
in which we ftand to others, prevent this. 
We cannot with impunity refrain from the 
performance of duties which the laws of 
fociety impofe, and to which thofe of Nature 
refpond. Man was not made to live alone. 
Such an abnormal condition, although it may 



226 Monajiic Inftitutions* 

gratify afcetic minds, is neither defirable nor 
good. It gives a precedent for a mode of 
life which, if much followed, would place a 
great barrier in the way of the world's pro- 
grefs. Civilization could not have a more 
formidable foe. It is a daring defiance of the 
divine command : " Increafe and replenifh 
the earth." Nothing can juftify fuch a 
fyftem, devoid almoft of one atoning feature. 
When perfons combine in fociety they are 
neceffarily compelled to obey certain laws, 
which, even in their rudeft form, approach 
the laws of confcience. Otherwife, how is 
fociety poffible ? Every one, therefore, is 
obliged to facrifice private inclination to the 
public good. Duty extends her mighty 
folemn chain unbrokenly from the loweft to 
the higheft condition. 'Tis a fearful thing 
to wander out of the path of duty. Were 
but one of thofe numberlefs planets aloft in 
fpace to deviate from its afligned courfe, 
there is no telling the appalling refults that 
would inevitably follow. The whole folar 
fyftem might receive a mock that, making 
worlds to their centre, would involve them 
in final ruin ! What grand and pregnant 
leflbns Nature teaches, did mankind but 
liften to her filent monitions ! 



Their pernicious Tendency. 227 

The monaftic fyftem fevers focial ties. It 
fets at defiance the claims which fociety has 
upon the individual, and by fo doing renders 
man irrefponfible to human laws. It more- 
over deceives by holding out falfe notions of 
happinefs which never can be realized. St. 
Sebaftian fays, that if mankind could but 
know the peace which the monaftic ftate 
affords, u the entire world would become a 
convent. 5 ' Another affirms, that if this were 
fufHciently underftood, " men would fcale 
the convent walls on every fide in order to 
become monks !"* Ruffinus declares, that 
" without a doubt the earth is preferved from 
ruin by the merits of the religious." f The 
tendency of this hateful fyftem is to difTolve 
fociety altogether by breaking up focial rela- 
tionfhips ; and by checking there production 
of the human fpecies to interfere with the 
divine purpofe in man's creation. The prin- 
ciple of monafticifm is pre-eminently anti- 
focial, and as fuch fhould be denounced* by 
the philanthropift, and regarded as the bane 
of whatever is good and lovely in our com- 
mon human nature. The opinion of all who 



* Liguori on the Religious State, cons. vi. 
•j* Pro. in vita Patr. (guoted by Liguori.) 



228 Monajlic Injlitutions* 

do not take a contracted view of the fubject, 
concurs in the facred record, that " it is not 
good for man to be alone," and that monaftic 
indolence and feclufion are incompatible with 
the purpofes and ends of life. The wifdom 
of Heaven certainly never defigned or con- 
templated fuch a fcheme. For as a learned 
writer obferves, " A wife and intelligent au- 
thor muft propofe fome end in the production 
of things ; but the end, whatever it was, 
could never be promoted by indolence and 
floth. Non-activity is the next to non- 
exiftence, and could no more anfwer any 
ufeful purpofe. A production of ftupid, un- 
moving, paffive beings, could be no other 
than a general chaos, which could prove of 
no further utility than as affording matter 
for future motion, harmony, and order."* 

Doubtlefs there are many who enter the 
cloifter with feelings bordering upon rap- 
ture, fondly expecting to realife a hiding- 
place from the ftorm, a covert from the 
tempeft, and a fecure haven, " where no 
wind can reach them, and no wave can 
harm," but who afterwards difcover to their 
unutterable forrow, that they have followed 
the " ignis fatuus " of their fervid imagina- 



* Dodwell. 



Their pernicious Tendency. 229 

tions, are more tempeft-tofled than ever, and 
that inftead of landing fafely on a fheltered 
ifland, they have but alighted on a dan- 
gerous quickfand. It is fad enough when 
the deluded enthufiaft voluntarily embraces 
the monaftic ftate, wherein is anticipated the 
realization of vain and fanguine expe£tations, 
unhappily but too frequently fruftrated. But, 
is it not horrifying to think that individuals 
whofe inclinations and feelings revolt at, and 
are entirely adverfe to, fuch a retreat, fliould 
be compelled, as well by intimidation as en- 
treaty, to adopt fo ungenial a condition. I 
have witneffed an inftance of this cruelty ; 
and cruelty is by far too mild a term for fuch 
barbarous conduit : — 

A Roman catholic curate, with whom I 
was on terms of intimacy, had a fifter, an 
intelligent and interefting young lady, refiding 
with him. In confequence of llender pecu- 
niary refources, he determined upon refigning 
his dwelling, and taking up his future abode 
with the prieft of the parifh. His firft ftep 
therefore was to folicit, and finally to compel, 
his fifter to enter a community of inclofed 
nuns in the fame town where I, when a 
novice, was located. Notwithftanding her 
repeated refufals and entreaties, and the in- 



230 Monajiic Inftitutions. 

terpofition of a younger brother, who had 
juft returned from college for the vacation, 
me was compelled, though in the bitternefs 
of grief, to comply with the prieft's unnatural 
demand ! Previous to entering the convent, 
fhe declared to me how painful it was to her 
feelings, and how deeply it grieved her, to 
be obliged to become incarcerated as a nun 
in oppofition to her wifhes. Frequently 
have I beheld her bathed in tears, and in- 
dulging in fecret the grief of her heart, at 
the confideration of the unhappy deftiny that 
awaited her. This young lady ftill remains 
in the gloomy cloifter, having taken perpetual 
vows, and received the black veil — fit em- 
blem of that forrow, which in all probability 
confumes, like a canker, the heart of her 
who wears it ! This is not a folitary inftance 
of the barbarity exercifed in order to compel 
perfons to become fecluded from the world ; 
although many who are ignorant of the 
fyftem foolifhly imagine that the act is a 
voluntary one. Thus it is that even the 
fignification of words is changed ; weaknefs, 
which yields to force, is termed docility and 
the yes extorted by violence, is called confent ! 

The monaftic eftablifhments in our own 
country at the prefent day are mainly fuftained 



1 



Their pernicious Tendency. 231 

by the influx of young people who, actuated 
by a variety of motives, facrifice their for- 
tunes, afFe£t ions, and lives, at the fhrine of this 
modern Moloch. I do not believe that the 
young catholic mind of this nation has, gene- 
rally fpeaking, any particular predile&ions or 
prepoffeflions for fuch a ftrange and injurious 
condition of exiftence. Hence poftulants, 
for the moft part, have to be procured from 
countries lefs remarkable for the very un- 
poetical quality of common fenfe. For my own 
part, I confefs that there is a kind of infatua- 
tion or charm around monaftic retreats which 
attracts the beholder. The folemn ftillnefs 
that reigns around them ; the fombre coun- 
tenances and peculiar attire of their inmates ; 
the religious fervices — all imprefs the mind 
deeply, and almoft force from the heart the 
ejaculation: " It is good to be here!" I 
do not wonder that fo many youthful minds 
mould thus be led aftray. Fancying a very 
Eden near to them, and a holy delight to be 
at once attained, but never dreaming of the 
long, difficult way between, or of the torment 
which their dreadful after-thoughts occafion, 
— they rum blindly to their ruin. 

Burton, in one of his writings,* quotes a 



Life and Correfpondence of David Hume. 



232 Monajiic Injiitutions. 

fragment which is too valuable not to be 
tranfcribed, efpecially as it refers to this very 
myftic and anti-focial mental condition of 
which I have been fpeaking. He remarks : 
— " ? Tis obfervable of the human mind that 
when it is fmitten with any idea of merit or 
perfection beyond what its faculties can attain, 
and in the purfuit of which it ufes not reafon 
and experience for its guide, it knows no 
mean, but as it gives the rein and even adds 
the fpur to every florid conceit or fancy, runs 
in a moment quite wide of nature. Thus 
we find when, without difcretion, it indulges 
its devout terrors, that working on fuch fairy 
ground, it quickly buries itfelf in its own 
whimfies and chimeras, and raifes up to itfelf 
a new fet of pafiions, affections, defires, ob- 
jects, and in fhort a perfectly new world of 
its own, inhabited by different beings, and 
regulated by different laws from that of ours. 
In this new world 'tis fo poflefled that it can 
endure no interruption from the old ; but as 
nature is apt ftill on every occafion to recall 
it thither, it muft undermine it by art, and 
retiring altogether from the commerce of 
mankind, if it be fo bent upon its religious ex- 
ercife, from the myftic by an eafy tranfition, de- 
generate into the hermit." Hence, prompted 



Their pernicious Tendency. 233 

by this fatal pietifm, many are fooliflily in- 
duced to adopt a life of fequeftration from the 
world ; but in the end, and not infrequently 
when it is too late to attempt to free them- 
feves from the grafp of their fpiritual rulers, 
they are brought to fee and regret the ram 
aft which binds them to the cloifter, as well 
as the vanity of having purfued the phantom 
of monaftic felicity ! 

Further : Monafticifm is productive of 
moral evils. 

Not only is monafticifm inimical to focial 
well-being by virtually difannulling and op- 
pofing thofe laws by which fociety is govern- 
ed, but it likewife fnaps afunder and uproots 
the holieft affections of the heart. It hefitates 
not to fet alide that moral law which com- 
mands us to honour and obey our parents, 
and teaches that the pure love of the creature 
is not harmlefs but injurious ; whilft, O grief 
of griefs ! it gives religion as its warrant. To 
fome thefe affertions may appear gratuitous. 
If fo, it is for want of being fufficiently in- 
formed on the fubjedT:. But, as I purpofe 
ftrictly adhering to the Shakfpearian maxim, 
" Nothing extenuate, nor fet down aught in 
malice," and as I wifh the reader to give me 
the character of being difpaffionate, I mail 



234 Monajiic Injlitutions. 

furnifli fatisfactory authority for the ftate- 
ments I advance. The council of Toledo, 
treating of the monaftic ftate, fays emphati- 
cally : " After children reach the age of 
fourteen years it is for them to follow their 
own wifhes in this refpect, either with the 
confent of their parents, or according to their 
own devotion, independently of the direction 
of parents " * This opinion has alfo been 
confirmed by feveral councils. Some of the 
Fathers, and other theological writers, take 
precifely the fame view. St. Thomas fays : 
" Slaves are not bound to obey their matters, 
nor children their parents, in the queftion 
of contracting marriage, or of entering into 
religion, or of any other like determination."t 
Pinamonti goes fo far as to affirm, that a 
child is not confcientioufly obliged to afk 
even the advice of his parents if the cloifter 
be the bent of his inclination. Liguori, 



* " Parentibus filios religioni tradere, non amplius quam 
ufque ad deciirium quartum eorum aelatis annum, licentia 
potent effe. Poftea vero, an cum voluntatae parentum, an 
fuae devotionis fit folitarium votum, erit liliis licitum reli- 
gionis affumere cultum." 

•J* Non tenentur nec fervi dominis, nec nlii parentibus 
obedire de matrimonio contrahendo, vel virginitate fer- 
vanda, vel aliquo alio hujufmodi — n. n. q. 10. a. 5. 



Their pernicious Tendency. 235 

taking up the fame theme, obferves : "If it 
would be a great error to feek the counfel of 
our parents, it would be a ftill greater error 
to defire their confent and to afk it of them, 
for by fo doing we run the rifk of lofing our 
vocation." # Then for the encouragement 
of weak or unftable fouls he continues : 
" There have been feveral faints who, when 
they were called to leave the world, quitted 
their father's houfe without even making 
their defire known to them. Thus did St. 
Thomas Aquinas, St. Francis Xavier, St. 
Philip Neri, etc., and we know that the 
Lord mowed by miracles that he approved 
their glorious flight. St. Peter of Alcantra, 
in going from the houfe of his mother to the 
monaftery found his flight impeded by a large 
river, which he did not know how to crofs. 
He recommended himfelf to God, and was 
inftantly tranfported to the oppofite fide. 
So, in a fimilar cafe, Staniflaus Koflka, when 
fleeing from his home without his father's 
permiflion, was clofely followed by his bro- 
ther in a carriage, defirous to overtake him ; 
but, juft as he was on the point of doing 
this the horfes Hopped fuddenly, and by 



* Liguori on the Religious State. 



236 Monajlic Injiitutions. 

no whipping could be induced to advance ; 
but after a fhort interval they turned round 
and quickly proceeded back to the town. 
We have alfo the example of the blefled 
Oringa of Valdarno, in Tufcany, who being 
promifed by her parents in marriage to a 
young man fled from him to confecrate her- 
felf to God. Finding her way flopped by 
the river Arno, me prayed for a few mo- 
ments, when me beheld the waters open, 
which rifing on each fide, like two cryftal 
walls, afforded her a dry paflage."* 

Liguori, with all the ingenuity of a cafuift, 
prefuppofes a cafe where a child bent upon 
entering a cloifter had no reafon to dread 
the refufal of his parents ; and afks if under 
fuch circumftances, it was proper to folicit 
their blefling. He replies in the negative ; 
and ftrongly difapproves of fuch " phari- 
faical fcruples adding, " If you are called 
to leave the world be careful that your refo- 
lution be not difcovered to your parents, 
but be content with the blefling of God." f 
Another of the fchoolmen % remarks, that if 
fuch vocation mould come from the devil it 



* Liguori on the Religious State, 
f Ibid. % St. Thomas. 



Their pernicious Tendency. 237 

ought to be embraced, as a wife counfel 
given by an enemy ! The principle is, that 
monaftic obedience fuperfedes and difpenfes 
with all other obedience, even that which 
human and divine laws have pronounced 
moft facred and inviolable.* It is ftated in 
a work of high authority, written by a cele- 
brated Spanifh Jefuit, that if parents mould 
chance to lie in the way, or become an im- 
pediment to fuch of their children as were 
defirous of embracing a " religious life," as 
the monaftic profeffion is unduly termed, 
" they Jhould walk over them ! "f — 

" Ingratitude ! thou marble-hearted fiend, 
More hideous when thou fhew'lt, thee in a child 
Than the fea-monfter ! " 

I feel very tenderly on this point, and can 
fpeak from bitter, painful experience. Being 
an only fon, and pretty clearly anticipating 
the fierce oppofition I mould otherwife have 



* Francis de Sales faid : — Nunquam periit obediens. 
S. Philippus Nerius afTerebat quod qui confefiario obfeque- 
batur, fe certum faciebat, Deo non redditurum de fuis 
operibus rationem. Contra ver6, ajebat S.Joannes deCruce, 
non fatisfieri de eo quod dicit confeflarius, effe fuperbiam, 
et in Fidem peccatum. — Liguori, i. 5. 

■f- Exercicio de Perfec. Por el Padre Alon. Rodriguez, 
de la Compania de Jefus. Sevilla, Ano. m.dc.ix. 



238 Monajiic Injiitutions. 

to encounter, I entered a convent without 
imparting to my mother the leaft intimation 
of my purpofe ; nor had fhe the remoter! 
idea of where I was for fome days, until I 
difpatched from the novitiate in Dublin, 
through the fuperior-general of the Order, 
a letter acquainting her with the ram ftep I 
had taken. This letter, I need fcarcely fay, 
underwent a ftricl: furveillance before it was 
fuffered to pafs on its deftination. Of courfe, 
the heads of the convent planned and aided 
my efcape, and warmly approved of my 
refolution. A dignitary of my acquaintance 
to whom I had, in the capacity of con- 
feffor, communicated my defign, certainly, 
I muft do him the juftice to fay, did not 
altogether approve of the idea that I mould 
defert my widowed mother's houfe without 
afking at leaft for the maternal benediction ; 
but added he, " that is what I would do 
were the cafe my own ; yet I mould not 
care, under the circumftances, whether I 
received a blejjing or a curfe!" A bifhop 
alfo allured me that, having examined into 
the particulars of my cafe, I was not under 
any moral obligation to acT: otherwife than 
I had intended. I have no defire what- 
ever to fpeak harfhly of thofe who out of 



Their pernicious Tendency. 239 

perfonal kindnefs favoured a fcheme which 
has fince afforded me the bittereft regret; 
and merely mention thefe fails as corrobo- 
rative of my former ftatements. It is re- 
corded, that after the celebrated Madame de 
Chantal, of the Vifitation, had forced from 
her father his confent, who upon acceding 
to her requeft exclaimed, " O God ! it will 
coft me my life !" — young Chantal, her fon 
ran to her, clafped her about the neck, and by 
the moft endearing expreffions endeavoured 
to prevail with her to alter the refolution me 
had taken. When he was unable to gain his 
point he flung himfelf acrofs the door, when 
" the holy widow ftepped over his body ! " 
Her father died the following year. Only 
juft imagine what that terrible force muft be 
which is fufficient to procure the unnatural 
diffeverance of that facred web, fo beautifully 
and firmly woven together by the Father of 
our common nature ! 

" In my Virgo Mio-gct/Ao^" fays Erafmus, 
" I hold up to reprobation thofe who entice 
young lads and girls into monafteries againft 
their parents' wills, abufing their fimplicity 
or fuperftition, and perfuading them that there 
is no chance of falvation but in a cloifter. 
If the world were not full of fuch anglers ; 



240 Monajlic Injlitutions. 

if countlefs promifing minds have not been 
moft wretchedly buried alive in fuch places, 
then I have been wrong in my reprehenfions. 
But if ever I am forced to fpeak out what 
I feel upon this fubjec~t, I will fo paint the 
portrait of thofe kidnappers, and fo reprefent 
the magnitude of the evil, that every one 
mail confefs I have not been wrong, though 
I have not reprefented them with civility, 
left I mould afford a handle to the wicked/' * 
Erafmus, whofe original name was Gerhard, 
by his great learning and literary labours 
precipitated the Reformation. His talents 
attracted the notice and admiration of princes 
and cardinals, and procured for him the offer 
of valuable preferments, which he however 
invariably rejected, while his farcaftic ex- 
pofure of the knavery of the monks, aroufed 
the ire of the " pious brotherhood," and 
enlifted their paflions and prejudices againft 
him. Luther and himfelf were on terms of 
intimate friendmip for fome time. At length 
a difruption occurred, and to the laft mo- 
ments of his life Luther avowed his antipathy 
and fpoke of Erafmus with contempt.f 



* De Colloq. Util. 

f Vide Notice of, in Moflieim's Eccles. Hift. vol. ii. 
p. 569. (Soames.) 



Their pernicious Tendency. 241 

Monafticifm likewife condemns as per- 
nicious and criminal the natural affection 
that mould fubfift between children and pa- 
rents, brothers, lifters and relatives. " The 
religious," fays Liguori, " who tells her 
parents, and her brothers, and her fifters, 
that fhe knows them not, is the true fpoufe 
of"Chrift." # Again: " The nun who leaves 
her relatives in effect, and in affeftion, 
mail obtain eternal beatitude in heaven. "f 
" Piety towards relatives is impiety towards 
God," fays Jerome. % Befides Liguori gives 
the following inftru&ions to the religious : 
" Never feek a vifit from your relatives, 
but when they come, withdraw from them 
as foon as poffible ; and excufe your with- 
drawal by faying that you muft attend to the 
duties of your office ; that you muft affift 
a perfon that is fick, or by fome fimilar apo- 
logy Should your relatives complain 

of your unwillingnefs to ferve them, ftiould 
they even charge you with difaffe&ion, with 
ingratitude, and even call you the enemy of 
your family, anfwer them with firmnefs that 



* The Nun Sanctified, chap. x. (On Detachment from 
Relatives.) f Ibid. 

J Epift. 28, ad Paulum. (Quoted by Liguori.) 
R 



242 Monaftic Injlitutions * 

you are dead to the world, and that it is your 
duty to attend only to the fervice of God and 
the monaftery."* I am inclined to believe 
that thofe fond parents and affectionate bro- 
thers and fitters who have, or defire to have, 
members of their families in the cloifter, are 
little aware of the unnatural and cruel exac- 
tions which that fyftem demands from them. 
My God ! the very thought makes one 
fhudder ! 

But as all natural attachment is thus per- 
emptorily profcribed and denounced, furely 
mutual affection, one would imagine, between 
the inmates of religious houfes of the fame 
fex, muft be encouraged. Alas ! no. That 
too is regarded in as diftorted and finful a light 
as the other. Hear the moft authoritative 
writer on the fubjecT: : — " The heart of a 
religious muft be an enclofed garden exclud- 
ing every affection which is not for God."f 
Again, St. Bafil fays : " Avoid familiarity 
with your equals : how many young perfons 
has the devil, through their companions, drawn 
into hell to be burned with eternal fire. "J 



* The Nun Sanctified, ch. x. fee. 1., etc. 
•f* Ibid. fee. 11. 

\ Serm. de Abdic. rer. etc. (Quoted by Liguori.) 



Their pernicious Tendency. 243 

This Father, we are told, cc prefcribed a very 
fevere chaftifement for the nuns of his order 
who mould entertain particular friendfhips."* 
Thefe St. Bernard characterifes as " poifoned 
attachments, "f 

It is quite reafonable to fuppofe that mo- 
naftics, who by virtue of their profeffion are 
neceflarily obliged to regard all human affec- 
tion as criminal, can poflefs little, if indeed 
any fentiment of love or even fympathy for 
each other. I am in pofTeffion of various 
facts which bear me out in thefe remarks, but 
mail content myfelf by merely relating a few 
out of many examples. 

On particular occafions moft religious 
orders have their " gala days," or feafons of 
feftivity, when the ordinary difcipline of the 
monaftery is fufpended, and when the com- 
munity indulge to fome degree in the pleafures 
of the table. On one of thefe occafions there 
happened to be in the monaftery a young 
profefled monk who was fuffering from a 
painful difeafe, and actually in a ftate of mental 
aberration* Amidft the fprightlinefs, wit, and 
joviality of the refectory, the agonizing groans 
of the fufferer, iffuing from his folitary cell, 



* The Nun Sanctified, chap. x. fee. n. f Ibid. 



244 Monajiic Injlitutions. 

would reverberate, with horrible found, 
around the feftive board ; yet callous-hearted 
men could not be induced to put off good 
cheer, but were content to obferve the worldly 
maxim, " eat, drink, and be merry," regardlefs 
of the cries of a wretched brother. They 
may, forfooth, give expreflion now and again 
to a word of fympathy, and fuch an excla- 
mation as " Poor fellow ! " may be extorted 
from them ; but groans fufficient to rend the 
heart and call forth tears of companion from 
the moft unrelenting, were not fufficient to 
force the goblet from their lips, or to caft 
even a made of forrow upon a fingle counte- 
nance prefent. This is by no means an 
overdrawn picture. 

I have likewife known a novice to be left 
without attendance or nourimment for feveral 
hours together, although he lay in languifh- 
ment upon a bed of ficknefs, exhaufted from 
lofs of blood occafioned by the frequent ap- 
plication of leeches. His difeafe too was of 
fuch a peculiar nature — I believe induced by 
the ftate of life he had but recently adopted 
— that it was confidered likely to terminate 
fatally. After the lapfe of many hours, the 
deputy-fuperior entered his cell, and with cold 
unconcern, obferved : " O brother ! I be- 



T? heir pernicious ^Tendency. 245 

lieve we have forgotten to fend you any 
refrefhment to-day." I was prefent on the 
occafion, engaged in applying a moiftened 
fponge to the wounds made by the leeches, 
and am pofitive as to the circumftance. It 
is no uncommon practice for the novices to 
be dealt with in this manner. 

But this very neglect is part of the difci- 
pline through which monaftics have to pafs. 
Liguori in his inftructions to the fick religious 
obferves : — " It is not enough that you are 
contented with what is given to you, and do 
not feek what through the negligence of the 
difpenfers you have failed to receive, which 
would be a great fault, but you muft be 
ready occafionally to fuffer from the want 
of thofe things which the rule allows. You 
will fometimes have a deficiency of clothes, 
bed-covering, clean linen, and food ; and 
you muft reft quite contented with the little 
you have received, without making complaint 
or dijlurbance, even though they mould feem 
neceffary."* Again, treating of patience 
under infirmity and neglect, and condemning 
thofe who exprefs complaint thereat, he re- 
marks : — "Another may fay, * But where 



* Inftru&ions on the Religious State, u. 



246 Monajlic Inflitutions. 

has charity gone ! Behold how my very fitters 
forget me, and abandon me on the bed of 
ficknefs.' I pity you ; not on account of 
your bodily infirmities, but becaufe of your 
want of patience under them, which makes 
you doubly fick in body and foul. The 
Jifters forget you : but you have forgotten 
fefus Chrifl"* — that is, by giving way to 
complaint. I deem thefe extracts from an 
authoritative quarter very important, as they 
prove that the very inhumanities I have de- 
fcribed are not merely accidents but refults, 
and form part and parcel of the heteroge- 
neous fyftem to which monks and nuns are 
alike fubje&ed. 

The monaftic life is a ftate of the fevereft 
bondage, as it rivets its weighty and galling 
yoke upon the minds and bodies of its 
victims \ whilft by enjoining a blind fub- 
miffion to the di£tates of a fuperior, it renders 
the exercife of thought and reafon fuper- 
fluous and criminal. Rational and innocent 
amufements are prohibited as inconfiftent 
with a religious profeffion ; and therefore the 
youngeft poftulant is compelled to afliime 
the four and ftudied gravity of the oldeft 



* The Nun Sanctified, chap. xiii. fee. 1. 



Their pernicious Tendency. 247 

profefled religious in the community. Hence 
arife, from undue reftraint, incalculable moral 
as well as phyfical evils. An eminent 
writer,* alluding to the fatal confequences 
which invariably refult from the prohibition 
of innocent amufements, thus obferves : — 
" People fliould be guarded againft temp- 
tation to unlawful pleafures by furnifliing 
them with the means of innocent ones. 
In every community there ftiould be plea~ 
fures, relaxations, and means of agreeable 
excitement; for if innocent ones be not 
furnifhed, refort will be had to criminal. 
Man was made to enjoy as well as to labour, 
and the ftate of fociety Ihould be adapted to 
this principle of human nature." Here are 
enunciated fome found philofophical views 
with reference to focial polity, which I am 
glad to find our rulers, as well as others, 
are beginning to recognize and even prac- 
tically adopt. 

Monaftic difcipline gradually works upon 
the individual until it changes his nature. 
At firft it polTerTes the infidious power of an 
opiate which lulls the foul into a comatic 
ftate. It deftroys will and produces moral 



* Dr. Channing. 



248 Monajiic Injlitutions. 

and mental annihilation. It is an unchriftian 
filicide,* worthy of the execration of every 
philanthropift. Even by the laws of this 
realm monaftics are confidered to be dead in 
effect. The means which bring about this 
fingular transformation are fimple. " The 
weaker they are," obferves Michelet, " the 
lefs they are fufpe£ted, and for this caufe 
they are ftrong. Iron claflies againft the 
rock, is blunted, and lofes its edge and point. 
But who would diftruft water ? Weak, 
colourlefs, infipid as it is, if however it always 
continues to fall in the fame place it will in 
time hollow out the flinty rock."f The 
power I fpeak of is Obedience. 

u In coming to the Vifitation," faid Jane 
Frances de Chantal to her nuns, " you muft 
difunite yourfelves from yourfelves. You 
muft fuffer your hearts to be mortified, pared, 
and bent, as is thought expedient by obedi- 
ence, and an entire refignation of yourfelves 
into the hands of thofe that diredl you with 
perfect limplicity." Obedience is made the 
alpha and the omega of monaftic difcipline. 

* Loyola on his death-bed enjoined every member of 
his order to be in the hands of his fuperior juft like a dead 
body, 

f Priefts, Women, and Families. 



Their pernicious Tendency. 249 

According to Liguori, and other theologians, 
even when it is doubtful whether the com- 
mand of the fuperior is contrary to the divine 
law, the religious is bound to obey, and fo 
far from finning thereby, he pleafes God.* 
He likewife treats at length upon the four 
degrees of perfeft obedience, viz., prompt- 
nefs, exaclnefs, cheerfulnefs, and fimplicity. 
He alfo quotes the following ftories for 
the encouragement of thofe religious whofe 
ftandard of fpiritual obedience is not quite 
up to the mark : — " To try the obedience 
of fome of his monks who were confined to 
bed by ficknefs, St. Columban commanded 
them to rife, and go to the barn to thrafh 
corn. As many as were filled with the true 
fpirit of obedience inftantly arofe, and were 
fuddenly reftored to health. The others, 
becaufe they were weak in fpirit as well as in 
body remained in bed and continued in their 
infirmities." f Again, " Blefled Juniper, 
while employed in planting a tree in the 
garden, was called by St. Francis. The 
brother did not obey the call immediately, 



* The Nun SancYified, chap. vii. feci:, in. 
j P. Plat, de bono. Strat. rel. lib. ii. cap. 5. — Ibid, 
cap. vii. fee. v. 



250 Monajlic Injiitutions. 

but waited till he had finifhed the work in 
which he was engaged. The faint, to Ihow 
him the fault he had committed by the tar- 
dinefs of .his obedience, curfed the tree, and, 
on the part of God, commanded it to grow 
no longer. The tree obeyed^ and never in- 
creafed in fize. The narrator of this facT: 
ftates, that when he wrote his annals, the 
tree was preferved in the convent of the city 
of Carniola, that it remained green, but was 
as fmall as when it was planted."* 

Rodriguez, taking up the like theme, draws 
powerfully on his imagination for the edifi- 
cation of thofe who by their vows have made 
a perfect abnegation of their will : — w There 
was once," he tells us, u a good religious 
employed in copying out fome written paper ; 
he was no fooner fet to it and had made only 
one letter, but the clock ftruck ; to comply 
with the call of obedience he left it in that 
manner, and when he returned, found it all 
written in letters of gold ! " f 

Molinos alfo, touching upon the fame 
key-note, fays, — " To act is the deed of the 



* Wadding. Annal. Min. an. 1222. n. xi. (guoted by 
Liguori.) 

f Exercicio, de Perfec. (De la Obeiiencia.) 



Their pernicious Tendency. 2 5 1 

novice ; to fuffer is immediate gain ; to die 
is perfection. Let us go forward in darknefs 
[blind obedience) and we mall go well. The 
horfe that goes round blindfolded grinds corn 
fo much the better. Let us neither think nor 
read. A practical mafter will tell us better 
than any book, what we muft do at the very 
moment. It is a great fecurity to have an 
experienced guide to govern and direct: us 
according to his actual intelligence, and pre- 
vent our being deceived by the demon of our 
own fenfes."* O, terrible effect of fpiritual 
obedience ! For the body to die, and be put 
in the ground 5 be trodden under foot ; be- 
come foul, and fuffer the ordeal of corrup- 
tion, until rottennefs turn to duft and afhes, 
leaving nothing behind to teftify that it ever 
had exiftence, is nothing, — verily nothing ! 
But for the foul itfelf to moulder within the 
living tomb that encafes it, this is of all 
deaths the moft definitive and deadly. " O 
horrible ! O horrible ! moft horrible ! " 

But it may be afked, what is there de- 
cidedly pernicious in the monaftic fyftem 
now-a-days, as monks and nuns do not adopt 
the rigid difcipline of the ancient reclufes. 
I anfwer, firft of all, Solitude. 



* Guida Spirituale. 



252 Monajlic Injlitutions . 

Very few minds are formed capable of 
refitting fuch a formidable influence as this. 
And hence the adoption of folitary confine- 
ment by our civil rulers as a mode of punifh- 
ment to which the moft hardened culprit 
muft become amenable. Think you, is it 
nothing to pafs your exiftence away in a re- 
verie \ to have your lips hermetically fealed ; 
your affections dead within your bofom ; and 
no will that you can call your own ; although 
" Man is man by virtue of willing."^ " To 
be alone," as Michelet fays, " and not alone ; 
forlorn and yet watched. Alone in a folitude 
without tranquillity of mind, and without re- 
pofe. How fweet in comparifon with this 
would be the folitude of the woods ! The trees 
would have compaflion ; they are not fo in- 
fenfible as they feem \ they hear and they 
liften/'f There is no folitude fo truly over- 
whelming as that of the cloifter. It is felt 
the more intenfely from proximity to the bufy 
world without ; and like moft other things 
becomes heightened by contraft. Monaftics 
who pafs long and beautiful years beneath this 
deadly Upas made come at length to lofe both 



* Emerfon's Reprefentative Men. 
f Priefts, Women, and Families. 



Their pernicious' Tendency. 253 

phyfical and mental perceptions and even fen- 
fations of pleafure. Ifolated as thofe flowers 
which bloom in the Alpine regions, where no 
fun-ray ever penetrates and no human eye 
obtrudes, and which feem to accufe Nature of 
having neither plan nor pity in her creation ; 
they remain melancholy memorials of heathen 
ignorance and the deftructive fanaticifm of 
paft ages, which the light of human progrefs 
and modern civilization has been unable to 
reach. Fitly does Moliere make Celimene fay 
in refufmg to follow the gloomy Alcefle : — 

" La folitude effraie une ame de vingt ans : 
Je ne fens point la mienne aflez grande, aflez forte, 
Pour me refoudre a prendre un deffein de la forte."* 

Dr. Andrew Combe treating of the evils 
confequent upon folitude thus obferves : " If 
we ftiun the fociety of our fellow-creatures 
and ftirink from taking a mare in the active 
duties of life, mental indolence and phyfical 
debility befet our path. But if by engaging 
in the bufinefs of life, and taking an active 
intereft in the advancement of fociety, we 
daily exercife our powers of perception, 
thought, and feeling, we promote the health 
of the whole corporeal fyftem, invigorate the 



* The " Mifanthrope.' 



254 Monaftic Injlitutions. 

mind itfelf, and at the fame time experience 
the higheft mental gratification of which a 
human being is fufceptible — that of having 
fulfilled the end and obje£t of our duties to 
God, to our fellow-men, and to ourfelves. 
If we negle£t our faculties, or deprive them 
of their obje£ts, we weaken the organization, 
give rife to diftrefling difeafes, and at the fame 
time experience the bittereft feelings that can 
afflict human nature, ennui and melancholy. 
The harmony thus mown to exift between 
the moral and phyfical world is but another 
example of the numerous inducements to 
that right conduct and a£tivity, in purfuing 
v/hich the Creator has evidently deftined us 
to find terreftrial happinefs."* Even upon 
the very deaf and dumb folitude exercifes a 
moft injurious efFe6l ; and cafes are recorded 
by Andral,f which place the matter beyond 
difpute. Pinel likewife mentions an inftance 
which ftrikingly exemplifies the dire confe- 
quences of fuddenly removing from fociety 
and entering upon feclufion.J 

Mr. Charles Dickens, alluding to the foli- 



* Conftitution of Man. 

f Didlionnaire de Med. et de Chirurg. Pratiques. 
J Traite medico-philofoph. fur 1'Alienation Mentale. 



Their pernicious Tendency. 255 

tary prifon of Philadelphia, employs language 
which is equally applicable to every convent 
in the land. He obferves : — " I am convinced 
that there is a depth of terrible endurance 
there which none but the fufferers themfelves 
can fathom .... My firm conviction is that 
independent of the mental anguifh it occa- 
fions — an anguifli fo acute and fo tremendous 
that all imagination of it muft fall fhort of the 
reality — it wears the mind into a morbid 
ftate .... There are many inftances on re- 
cord of men who have chofen, or have been 
condemned to lives of perfect folitude, but I 
fcarcely remember one even among fages of 
ftrong and vigorous intellect, where its effect 
has not become apparent in fome difordered 
train of thought or fome gloomy hallucination. 
What monftrous phantoms, bred of defpon- 
dency and doubt, and born and reared in 
folitude, have ftalked the earth, making crea- 
tion ugly, and darkening the face of hea- 
ven!"* 

I for one fee no diftinction between con- 
vents and fuch prifons as Mr. Dickens com- 
plains of ; and I doubt not but that the dis- 
cipline of the latter is far more lax, and lefs 



* Notes on America. 



256 Monaftic Injiitutions. 

reprehenfible. Theological writers, not fatif- 
fied with the feclufion of the cloifter, juftify, 
nay, even recommend, clofe confinement. 
Hear Liguori : " Would to God," he ex- 
claims, " that in all monafteries there were 
grates of punched iron, fuch as we find in 
fome obfervant convents."* Then he con- 
tinues : " A certain author relates, that the 
fuperiorefs of a monaftery procured a clofe 
grate ; but the devil, through rage, firft bent 
it, and afterwards fent it rolling through the 
houfe. The good fuperiorefs placed it, 
crooked as it was, in the parlour, to give the 
nuns to underftand, that as the grate was 
hateful to hell fo it was pleafing to God. 
Oh ! what an awful account mall the abbefs 
have to give to God who introduces open 
grates. St. Therefa wrote this great fentence : 
4 A monaftery of nuns, in which there is 
liberty ferves to conduit them to hell ! ' "f Is 
it any wonder that the poor woman into whofe 
hands fuch a book of inftru&ions is placed, 
mould have within her a feeling which, fweep- 
ing over heart and brain like a fire-flood, tells 
her that flie is a prifoner in her cloifter and 



* The Nun Sanctified, chap. xvi. fee. 1. f Ibid. 



Their pernicious Tendency. 257 

a Jlave to her fuperior, irremediably bound as 
Maffinger's Hortenjto : — 

" I am fubjec"r. to another's will, and can 
Nor fpeak nor do without permijjion from her !" 

The reclufe naturally and inevitably is a 
morbid-minded, mifanthropic, imbecile crea- 
ture ; nay, he is even an ignoble and con- 
temptible creature, for he views with jaun- 
diced eye and prejudiced feelings, Nature and 
her wondrous beauties, and makes his purely 
fubje£Hve mind the miferable ftandard of vir- 
tue and pietifm. His mental and phyfical per- 
ceptions are difeafed, diftorted, difmal ; fo 
that he cannot obferve with pleafurable 
emotions what delights other men — like the 
unhappy foundling of whom we read, who 
in gazing upon the lovelieft flower could only 
pay attention to the tiny " black beetle" 
that crawled over it, and which pitiable 
perverfity marred the enjoyment derivable 
from the fight of flowers ever after. 

Another moral evil of monafticifm, not a 
whit lefs objectionable than that I have juft 
defcribed, is Celibacy. 

The celibate flate is imperatively eflential 
to this ftrange and unnatural condition. 
Hence every " religious" at his or her pro- 
s 



258 Monajlic Injlitutions. 

feffion vows a life of perpetual chaftity. 
Thus a kind of artificial exiftence, — a fexlefs 
fex^ in fact, — is created which mars by its 
deformity the beauty of God's handy-work, 
and oppofes that " Order" which " is Hea- 
ven's firft law." The true philofophical idea 
of man is a duality of perfons. Man and wo- 
man firft conftituted it, and both are ftill 
neceflary not only to the fuccellion but to 
the perfection of the race. The individual 
who does not virtually deny his manhood, 
muft feel confcious that he is merely a com- 
ponent part of the great whole, needing 
another part to complete the perfect being. 
Woman is efTential to the refinement, en- 
joyment, purification, as well as the moral 
and focial developement, of the oppofite fex. 
Not lefs neceflary is the fociety of man to 
the woman. Each acts upon the other with 
moft falutary effect, in obedience to that 
powerful law of fympathy which Nature 
planted in the human heart, for the beft and 
wifeft of purpofes. Where this principle is 
difcarded, from whatever motive, we find 
that Nature herfelf becomes her own Ne- 
mefis to avenge the violation of her decrees ; 
though in what precife manner it is needlefs 
to particularife. To the mawkifh, profane 



Their pernicious Tendency. 259 

pietifm of monkery, the facrament * of mar- 
riage is an unholy thing ; for the natural 
principle of marriage, which is the love of 
the fexes, is excluded from heaven. Why, 
Hindoo fanaticifm never attained to fuch a 
pitch of folly, mall I fay impiety, as this. 
According to that fyftem no man could 
affume the office of a Sanyaffi, or hermit 
abforbed in God, if he had not previoully 
fulfilled certain obligations, one of which 
was, that he had a legitimate fon. It was 
referved for monafticifm to pronounce it the 
higheft and holieft act of religion when vir- 
ginity mould offer itfelf at its altars, and 
when the connubial mould be facriflced to 
the divine love! The fchoolmen had ren- 
dered love to God as a perfonal Being, a 
literal, ftricl:, perfonal, exclufive love ; con- 
fequently for the devout foul to cherifli any 
other, was regarded as a heinous fin — in 
fine, as adultery ; and entirely incompatible 
with the tranfcendental beatitudes of the 
Gofpel. " Perfeclum autem ejfe nolle delin- 
quere eft" fays St. Jerome. " How," a(ks 
St. Clement, " can I divide my heart between 
God and man ; how can an earthly wife 

* This term is not employed in a theological fenfe. 



260 Monajiic Inflitutions. 

have a place in my heaven-filled bread?" 
" Thy beloved," writes a Kempis, " has this 
quality, that he will fuffer no rival ; he alone 
will have thy heart, will rule alone in thy foul 
as a king on his throne. Thou canft not 
ferve God, and at the fame time have thy 
joys in earthly things ; thou muft wean thy- 
felf from all acquaintances and friends, and 
fever thy foul from all temporal confolation." 
" Ye wifh," fays Tauler, " to have both 
God and the creature together, and that is 
impoffible. Joy in God and joy in the crea- 
ture cannot exift together." " Jefus," fays 
St. Jerome, in his Epiftle to Euftochia, " is 
a jealous fpoufe : he is unwilling that your 
face he feen by others " % " Jefus has placed," 
fays St. Agnes, " a feal on my forehead, that 
I admit no lover but him." + " A religious," 
writes Liguori, C£ on the day of her profeffion 
is efpoufed to Jefus Chrift ; for in the cere- 
mony of profeffion, the bifhop fays to the 
novice about to be profefTed : Q I efpoufe thee 
to Jefus Chrijl ; may hepreferve thee inviolate. 
Receive then as his fpoufe he ring of faith' "J 
" As firft fruits are the moft delicious," fays 



* Liguori's True Spoufe of Chrift, chap, i, 
f Ibid. % Ibid. 



Their pernicious Tendency. 261 

cardinal Hugo, " fo virgins confecrated to 
God, are moft pleafing and dear to him." 
" Virginity," fays St. Cyprian, u is the queen 
of all virtues, and the pofTeflion of every 
good."* Tertullian, Ambrofe, and others, 
favour this fupernaturalifm, and recognize 
the facred rite of marriage more in the light 
of a neceflary evil than an abiding good ; and 
merely fanclion it, not in order to fanctify 
but to reftricl: the flefti ; to reprefs ; to kill 
it. In fine, to drive Beelzebub out by Beel- 
zebub. Even Luther was not proof againft 
the force of early training and prejudice ; 
for although he certainly married a nun, yet 
his writings favour of attachment to that 
very principle which his own connubial act 
condemned. " Chaftity," he remarks, " is a 
nobler gift than marriage ! " Mlrabile diSfu! 
Hence it will appear that immaculate vir- 
ginity is the Diana of monafticifm and its 
hyperphyfical eulogifts and abettors, to whom 
the language of Akenfide may fitly be ap- 
plied : — 

" Thou, alas ! 
Doft thou afpire to judge between the Lord 
Of Nature and his works ? to lift thy voice 
Againft the fovereign order he decreed, 



* S. Cyp. de Virgin. (Quoted by Liguori.) Ibid. 



262 Monajiic Injiitutions. 

All good and lovely ? to blafpheme the bands 
Of tendernefs innate and focial love, 
Holier! of things ! by which the general orb 
Of being as by adamantine links, 
Was drawn to perfect union and fuftain'd 
From everlafting ?"* 

Not content, however, with fulfome adu- 
lations of the celibate ftate, fome writers, to 
beget in the minds of their fimple readers a 
defire for fuch a life, reprefent the marriage 
union as an evil to be carefully avoided, and 
as almoft certain to produce difaftrous con- 
fequences both in time and eternity. St. 
Ambrofe fays, that " whoever preferves the 
virtue of celibacy is an angel ; but whoever 
violates it is a demon /" f u For a married 
woman to become a faint," obferves Liguori, 
" it is neceffary that file be perfectly free 
from the control and tyranny of human 
ties!" J He then paints in vivid colours 
the confequences of wedlock ; condemns 
as hindrances to communion with Deity 
the holy and indifpenfable obligations of the 
wife and mother; and even condefcends 
to indelicate particulars, fuch as the pains 
and perils of parturition. " Oh ! how un- 



* The Pleafures of Imagination, book ii. 
f Lit. de Offic. (Quoted by Liguori.) Vide The True 
Spoufe of Chriftj chap. i. J Ibid. 



"Their pernicious Tendency. 263 

happy and miferable," he continues, " is the 
life of the generality of married perfons ! I 
have known the circumftances, the feelings, 
and difpofitions of numberlefs married per- 
fons, from the higheft to the loweft clafs of 
fociety ; and how few of them were content ! 
The bad treatment of hufbands, the difaffec- 
tion of children, the wants of the family, the 
control of relatives, the pains of child-birth, 
which are always accompanied with danger 
of death, etc., plunge poor feculars into 
endlefs troubles and agitation, and fill their 
fouls with continual regret for not having 
been called to a happier and holier Jiate. God 
grant that, in the midft of fuch troubles and 
agitation, many of them may not lofe their 
immortal fouls, and that along with pafling 
through a hell in this life^ they may not be 
condemned to an eternity of torments in the 
next. Such is the condition of many of thofe 
who have engaged in the married ftate."* 
Surely fuch flagitious fentiments are deferving 
of virtuous execration ; being libels upon 
the pureft and moft exalted of conditions, 
and oppofed to the beft interefts and nobleft 
inftin£ts of humanity. 



* Ibid. 



264 Monajiic Injiitutions. 

There is, I conceive, no truth more felf- 
evident, no propofition more axiomatic, than 
that monafticifm has a fpecial tendency to 
vitiate and debafe the intellectual powers, and 
extinguifh the holieft and tendereft emotions 
of the heart. As with the body fo with the 
mind. If the one be deprived of liberty, 
pure air, exercife, and proper nutriment, it 
will gradually droop and wither. If the 
other fails to exert its faculties, or if thofe 
faculties become diverted from their legiti- 
mate channel, premature decay is likewife 
inevitable. Now I know of nothing more 
calculated to opprefs and crufh the mind, to 
demoralife and ferioufly injure its delicate 
organization, than the fyftem of which I 
fpeak. Monafticifm ftrives to reform what 
Nature has formed ; to perfect what Nature 
has left imperfect ; and in order that men 
may efcape judicial fuffering in eternity, it 
impofes a voluntary fuffering in time. After 
all, it is but a felfifh fyftem, bafed upon a 
mere arithmetical queftion of profit and lofs. 
For its own benefit it would ftrike a bargain 
with God ! 

Man is a dual formation of body and mind, 
while each faculty has duties peculiarly apper- 
taining toitfelf. He certainly was notdefigned 



Their pernicious Tendency. 265 

to fly, for he has legs to walk ; nor can he 
fafely fupply the cravings of one nature to 
the negle£t of thofe of the other. The mind 
cannot always remain on the ftretch. Indeed, 
the attempt to keep it fo would be moft 
hazardous. If the bow be not occafionally 
unftrung it will be fure not to (hoot well. 
Monafticifm, by almoft entirely abolifhing, 
or at leaft greatly reftri£ting, the ufe of ra- 
tional enjoyment, and by keeping the mind 
fcrewed up to an unneceflary and unnatural 
point of tenfion, produces untold moral 
evils. A difruption muft neceflarily enfue. 
And although the fatal and inevitable effects 
of fuch reftraint attradt little attention, and 
ftill lefs obfervation ; although no fecular 
eye dares penetrate the thick walls which 
fhut out the world, and therefore cannot 
take cognifance of paffing events within ; 
neverthelefs, the evil is not the lefs real or 
appalling, and mould not the lefs be difcoun- 
tenanced and difcouraged by every one who 
pofleffes an ordinary mare of fympathy for the 
fufFerings and forrows of his fellow-man, — 
already, Heaven knows ! numerous enough 
without their being increafed by artificial 
means. 

Few but thofe who are pra&ically ac- 



266 Monajlic Injlitutions 

quainted with the fyftem of monachifm can 
form anything like a correft idea of the 
extent to which its rigid requirements are 
carried out. The refinement of its tortures 
has no parallel. Free interchange of thought 
and feeling is prohibited. Family and friends 
muft be renounced. Every written com- 
munication has firft of all to be fubmitted to 
the efpianageof the fuperior. The leaft fenfual 
indulgence, fuch as laughter, is profcribed 
and denounced as linful. The religious muft 
have no will, no want, no defire. They 
are reftri&ed in talking, walking, fitting, 
{landing, fleeping, eating, feeing, hearing, 
fmelling, and feeling.* Thefe poor folitaries 



* Modefty requires that after fpeaking as much as will be 
necefiary for the ends of the recreation, you fhow a ftronger 
inclination to liften than to fpeak. Speak always in a 
low tone . . . Your walk muft be grave y neither too 
quick, nor too flow .... A religious muft pracYife modefty 
in fitting .... She muft avoid every flothful pofture, and 
muft abftain from crofting the feet, and from putting one 
leg on the other .... She muft at meals take her food 
without avidity ... A religious in general fhould keep the 
eyes caft down .... To mortify the fmell you muft abftain 
from the ufe of perfumes, and fcented waters .... The 
fenfe of touch muft be kept under the greateft reftraint by 
external mortifications, fuch as fafts, hair-cloths, difciplines 
and watchings." — Liguor? s True Spoufe of ChriJ}, chap. viii. 
fees, i — in. 



Their pernicious Tendency. 267 

cannot, when in the garden, even freely pluck 
fruit, or inhale the fragrance of flowers. 
Nature may indeed fmile, but not for them. 

In Tilliard's Memoir there occurs this 
note of Sifter Mary Lemonnier : — " My 
confeffor," Ihe obferves, " forbad me to 
gather flowers and to draw. Unfortunately, 
walking in the garden with the nuns, there 
were on the edge of the grafs two wild 
poppies, which, without any intention, I 
lopped between my fingers in paffing. One 
of the fifters faw me, and ran to inform the 
fuperiorefs who was in front, and who directly 
came towards me, made me open my hand ; 
and, feeing the poppies, told me that I had 
done for myfelf. And the confeffor having 
come the fame evening, fhe accufed me be- 
fore him of difobedience in having gathered 
flowers. It was in vain that I told him that 
it was done unintentionally, and that they 
were only wild poppies ! I could not obtain 
permiflion to confefs myfelf." 

III. Monafticifm is pernicious in aphyfical 
fenfe. 

Would that I were enabled to illuftrate this 
fact by other than a defcriptive character — 
that I could throw open the doors of con- 
ventual cells, and array before the reader's 



268 Monajiic Injiitutions. 

view their dejected and miferable occupants. 
How the blanched, melancholy, and care- 
worn vifage, would affect and call forth the 
tenderer!: feelings of commiferation for the 
unhappy victims of a fuperftition, which de- 
mands the twofold facrifice of mind and body 
upon its unhallowed altars ! Here would 
be obferved the young man, whofe health is 
gradually and imperceptibly declining, — evi- 
dently the fubject of confuming grief, — 
who, were he but in poffeffion of rational 
notions of religion, would, probably, be both 
an ornament and a bleffing to that fociety 
which he now practically difavows. And 
there would be difcovered the delicate and 
tender maiden, who, ere fcarce two fummers' 
funs had paffed, was 

" Like the lily, 
That once was miftrefs of the field, and flouriihed," 

whofe eyes fparkled with joyous life, and 
upon whofe countenance health of body and 
ferenity of mind were depicted ; now, alas ! 
become the prey of the fell deftroyer. No 
longer do the tinted cheek or the clear, calm 
eye betoken a foul at peace, or a favourable 
condition of the phyfical powers. Thefe are 
changed now. Nothing now prefents itfelf 

I 



Their pernicious Tendency. 269 

but the wan and d ejected countenance — fad 
but fure omens of extreme mental and bodily 
proftration. And although there might be 
difcerned in fome an apparent cheerfulnefs 
of manner, it is but an affectation of the 
reality — the poor, hollow, miferable coun- 
terfeit of genuine contentment. For I have 
not the flighteft hefitation in affirming, that 
the deluded inmates of the cloifter are pofi- 
tively under ftriir. obligation to conceal, even 
from each other, the real emotions of their 
hearts — thus being driven to a make-believe 
that they poffefs fpiritual joy and peace, by 
the forced affumption of a demeanour any- 
thing but in keeping with the wretchednefs 
of their true condition ; which literally veri- 
fies the words of the dramatift 

et Le plus fouvent l'apparence decoit ; 
II ne faut pas toujours juger fur ce qu'on voit." 

If the monaflic life be really a ftate calculated 
to afford happinefs to thofe who embrace it, 
then I muft have had ample opportunities 
for obferving its falutary influences. The 
fa£t is otherwife. And hence monaftics are 
placed under decided obligation to ajfume a 



* Moliere — Madame Pernelle in Tartuffe. 



270 Monajlic Inftitiitions. 

demeanour, which any one who has had the 
flighteft experience well knows is not con- 
fiftent with the fpontaneous emotions of the 
mind.* 

In drawing this pi£ture, it was not at all 
neceflary to heighten it by too lively a colour- 
ing. If there exifts any fault, it lies in the 
tints not being fufficiently vivid ; for none 
but thofe who have been behind the fcenes 
can tell what weight of woe thofe experience 
who are immured in convent prifons. 

" What ages of what agonies may low'r 

O'er one bruifed human heart, in one brief hour,'* 

are peculiarly their lot to feel with all the 
intenfity that remorfe can give. We have 
an inftance in the writings of Caffian, where 
he defcribes, from perfonal experience, the 
u afcedta" or liftleffnefs of mind and body, 
to which fuch perfons were expofed when 
they fighed to find themfelves alone. I 
have myfelf known a perfon of confiderable 
ftanding in the monaftery, who, during the 
few days preceding the renewal of his vows, 



* St. Jane Chantal ufed to fay, " When I am among 
our young religious I laugh in order to encourage them to 
enjoy the recreation, for this is neceflary." — Liguons True 
Spoufe ofChrift. 



Their pernicious Tendency. 271 

exclaimed in prefence of his brethren, — " O 
how fweet is liberty!" I greatly fear that 
many who are bound to their folitary cloifters 
give, but in vain, fimilar ejaculations, and 
pine beneath the blighting influences of cor- 
roding grief ;— 

" 'Tis better to be lowly born, 
And range with humble livers in content, 
Than to be perk'd up in a glittering grief, 
And wear a golden forrow." 

Defrru&ion of the body is one of the 
principles upon which monafticifm is bafed. 
" If you defire to live in this houfe," faid 
St. Bernard the abbot, to thofe who prefented 
themfelves for admiflion at the monaftery of 
Clairvaux, " you muft leave your body. Only 
fpirits enter here ! " The entire fyftem tends 
to felf-abnegation, felf-renunciation, felf-im- 
molation. Its trifling, infipid ceremonies ; 
its harafling and inceflant occupations ; its 
idle and empty routine of monotonous du- 
ties — all tend to excite the mind and produce 
deprefling paffions. Thefe again rea£t upon 
the phyfical conftitution, and engender dif- 
eafes of a ferious type. u Nothing," obferves 
a celebrated writer,* " is more clearly fettled 



Mr. Draper. 



272 Monafiic Injiitutions. 

by experience, than that grief acts as a flow 
poifon, not only in the immediate infliction 
of pain, but in gradually impairing the powers 
of life, and in fubtracting from the fum of 
our days. I am confident that the far greater 
portion of human fuffering is of our own 
procuring — the refult of ignorance and mis- 
taken views." Another eminent writer,* 
treating of this Subject, remarks : — " No one 
can imagine what a vaft number of difeafes, 
not only functional, but organic, arife fimply 
from unpleafant paffions of the mind." And 
Luther, defcribing the melancholy and de- 
jection to which he when a monk was 
Subjected, obferves : " Solitude and melan- 
choly are poifon. They are deadly to all ; 
but above all to the young." 

In confirmation of the moral and phyfical 
evils confequent upon monafticifm, I mall 
fubmit a few confeflions from the lips of 
thofe who could individually fay, — " Quorum 
pars magna fui" In the Letters of Madame 
de Chantal, curtailed and interpolated though 
the priefts have rendered them, yet we dis- 
cover therein quite Sufficient to convey 
clearly the genuine fentiments of her heart. 



* Dr. John Elliotfon, F.R.S., etc. 



"Their pernicious Tendency. 273 

She writes : " All that I have fuffered during 
the whole courfe of my life is not to be 
compared to the torments I now feel. I am 
reduced to fuch a degree that nothing can 
fatisfy me or give me any relief except one 
word — Death ! " Even Alban Butler ad- 
mits, " that exterior trials, (alluding to the 
death of near relations) however fevere, were 
light in comparifon of the interior anguifli, 
darknefs, and fpiritual drynefs, which me 
fometimes experienced for a confiderable 
time." Poor woman ! I grow fad when I 
think of her. Before fhe became an abbefs 
fhe addreffed a letter (now extant) to her 
dire£tor Francis de Sales, in which (he ob- 
ferves : " There is fomething within me 
that has never been fatisfied." This woman 
had within her heart depths of unknown 
paffion. But hufh ! I dare not go further. 
There is enough methinks in her hiftory to 
make even a dead man weep ! — 

" Oh that my heart was quiet as a grave, 
Afleep in moonlight! 
For as a torrid funfet boils with gold 
Up to the zenith, fierce within my foul 
A paffion burns from bafement to the cope." 

I mail next allude to the monk, Bernard, 
whofe mortification of his fenfes was fuch 
T 



274 Monajlic Injiitutions. 

that when twelve months in the novitiate 
he did not know whether the top of his cell 
was covered with a ceiling, nor whether the 
church had more than one window, though 
it had three. " His face," fays his biogra- 
pher, u was emaciated and exceeding pale 
and wan, and his whole body bore vifible 
marks of his auftere and penitential life. . . 
. . He almoft always laboured under fome 
corporeal infirmity, and his ftomach, through 
a habit of exceffive fafting, was fcarce ever 

able to bear any folid food He often 

made a fcruple of taking herb pottage in 
which a little oil and honey were mixed. 
When one exprefTed his furprife at his 
making fuch a difficulty, he anfwered : c Did 
you know how great the obligation of a 
monk'is, you would not eat one morfel of 
bread without having firft watered it with 
your tears.' He ufed to fay, c Our fathers 
built their monafteries in damp unwholefome 
places, that the monks might have the un- 
certainty of life more fenfibly before their 
eyes.' St. Bernard feemed to fet no bounds 
to the aufterities which he pra&ifed. William 
of St. Thierry fays, that he went to his meals 
as to a torment, and that the fight of food 
feemed often his whole refedtion. His 



Their pernicious Tendency. 275 

watchings were incredible. He feemed by 
his mortifications to have brought upon 
himfelf a dangerous diftemper, and his life 
was almoft defpaired of."* A good monk, 
truly ! " the prodigy and wonder of the 
eleventh age ! " f Surely, fuch an one muft 
have been very happy indeed — happy in his 
folitude, and in the fcrupuloufly exacT: fulfil- 
ment of his rules and vows. But was he 
happy ? Let us hear what he himfelf fays 
on this important fubjecl:. And oh ! that 
all young people now being beguiled by 
interefted partizans, who paint in glowing 
colours to their fervid imaginations and con- 
fiding hearts, the fugitive happinefs of the 
cloifter, would but ponder on the melancholy 
confeffion, and profit by the experience, of a 
fainted monaftic. Bernard writes : — " I am 
feized all over with horror, dread, and trem- 
bling, whenever I repeat within myfelf that 
fentence, c Man knoweth not whether he be 
worthy of love or hatred.' " % And again, ad- 
dreffing fome of his brethren, he obferves : 
" My monftrous life and my affli&ed con- 



* Lives of the Saints, vol. viii. (S. Bernard, A.) 
f Ibid. 

J Serm. xxviii. in Cant. Totus inhorrui, etc. 



276 Monafiic Injlitutions. 

fcience cry towards you for companion ; for 
I am a kind of amphibious creature, that 
neither lives as an ecclefiaftic nor as a reclufe. 
When you have learned my danger favour 
me with your advice and prayers."* 

I lhall not flop here to difcufs the very 
heinous offence of which Bernard was guilty, 
by injuring his health in the way that 
Alban Butler teftifies. Life being the pro- 
perty of God, and man having only a right 
ufe of it, we may fairly conclude that it is 
fuicidal to do aught that is abfolutely unlawful 
either to injure or deftroy the divine right 
of property in it — a moral do&rine even 
acknowledged by Socrates, juft before he 
imbibed the fatal cup.f 

Luther, in defcribing his perfonal expe- 
rience as a monk and the refults of his long 
and clofe obfervation, obferves : — " What I 
here fay I have learned by my own expe- 



* Epift. 250. 

-f Man feems to be one of thofe beings in which the 
gods have referved to themfelves a proprietary, and there- 
fore, as a matter would be angry with his Have if he mould 
injure his life without his leave, and would punim him for 
fo doing, fo it is reafonable to think that no man ought to 
do aught prejudicial to his exigence, unlefs God lays him 
under a neceffity of killing himfelf, as he now does me. — 
Plat, in Phoed. p. 62. Ed. Serrani. 



Their pernicious Tendency. 277 

rience, and that of others, in the monaftery. 
I have feen many who, with the utmoft 
diligence and fcrupulofity, have omitted no- 
thing which might pacify confcience ; have 
worn haircloth, failed, prayed, afflicted, and 
exhaufted their bodies by various feverities ; 
fo that, even if they had been made of iron, 
they muft at length have been deftroyed. 
Yet the more they laboured, the more fearful 
they became. And efpecially as the hour of 
death drew nigh, they were fo full of trepi- 
dation, that I have feen many murderers 
condemned for their crimes meet death with 
more confidence than thefe perfons who had 
lived fo ftriclly."* And in an epiftle to 
George, Duke of Saxony, Luther fays : — 
" Truly I was a pious monk, and followed 
the rules of my order more ftridtly than I 
can tell. If ever monk had got to heaven 
by monkery, I had been that monk. In this 
all the monks of my acquaintance will bear 
me witnefs. Had the thing continued much 
longer I had become a martyr unto death, 
through vigils, prayer, reading, and other 
labours." f 

Luther's account of himfelf is fully borne 



* Comment, on Galatians. -jr Luth. Op. w. xix. 



278 Monajlic Injiitutions. 

but by the hiftorian, D'Aubigne, who ftates, 
u that the young monk ftudied fo clofely and 
ardently that he often omitted to fay his 
office during two or three weeks. Then 
becoming alarmed at the thought of having 
tranfgrefled the rules of his order, he fhut 
himfelf up to make amends for his negligence, 
and commenced confcientioufly repeating all 
the omitted hours, without thinking of meat 
or drink. On one occafion his fleep went 
from him for feven weeks/' # 

Sir Bulwer Lytton, alluding to the unfortu- 
nate wife of Henry IV., (Mary de Medicis) 
who fought peace for her tortured fpirit in the 
tranquillity of the cloifter, thus pathetically 
obferves : — " Alas, the cell and the convent 
are but a vain emblem of that defire to fly to 
God which belongs to diftrefs ; the folitude 
foothes, but the monotony recalls regret. 
And for my own part I never faw, in my 
frequent tours through catholic countries, 
the ftill walls in which monaftic vanity hoped 
to fhut out the world, but a melancholy 
came over me. What hearts at war with 
themfelves ! — what unceafing regrets ! — what 
pining after the paft ! — what long and beau- 



* Hift. Reform, book ii. ch. 3, vol. i. 



Their pernicious Tendency. 279 

tiful years devoted to a moral grave, by a 
momentary rafhnefs, an impulfe, a difap- 
pointment! " # 

Michelet alfo gives a very affecting picture 
of the phyfical evils refulting from monafti- 
cifm. He writes : — " Fifteen years ago, I 
occupied in a very folitary part of the town, 
a houfe, the garden of which was adjacent 
to that of a convent of women. Though 
my windows overlooked the greateft part of 
their garden, I had never feen my fad neigh- 
bours. In the month of May, on Rogation 
day, I heard numerous weak, very weak 
voices chanting prayers, as the proceffion 
paffed through the convent-garden. The 
finging was fad, dry, unpleafant ; their voices 
falfe, as if fpoiled by fufferings ! I thought 
for a moment they were chanting prayers 
for the dead ! but liftening more attentively 
I diftinguifhed, on the contrary, c Te rogamus 
audi nos! y — the fong of hope which invokes 
thebenedi&ionoftheGodof life upon fruitful 
nature ! This May-fong, chanted by thefe 
lifelefs nuns, offered to me a bitter contraft. 
To fee thefe pale girls crawling along on the 
flowery, verdant turf — thefe poor girls, who 



* Pilgrims of the Rhine. 



280 Monajlic Injiitutions. 

will never bloom again ! The thought of the 
middle ages, that had at firft flaftied acrofs 
my mind, foon died away ; for then monaftic 
life was connected with a thoufand other 
things ; but in our modern harmony what is 
this but a barbarous contradiction — a falfe 
harm, grating note. What I then beheld 
before me was to be defended neither by 
nature nor by hiftory. I fliut my window 
again, and fadly refumed my books. This 
fight had been painful to me, as it was not 
foftened or atoned for by any poetical fenti- 
ment. It reminded me much lefs of chaftity 
than of fterile widowhood — a ftate of empti- 
nefs, inaction, difguft — of an intellectual and 
moral faft — the ftate in which thefe unfor- 
tunate creatures are kept by their abfolute 
rulers ! " * 

It is a ftriking but melancholy fa£t that 
noviciates, or convents where young perfons 
are trained, perfectly refemble hofpitals, 
Moft of the poftulants become ill after a very 
fbort time ; and I am only furprifed that 
many more deaths do not occur in thefe pef- 
tilent places. Gerald Griffin, whofe writings 
are becoming popular in this country, died 



* Priefts, Women, and Families. 



Their pernicious Tendency. 281 

within the firft or fecond year of his probatory 
courfe. Since his deceafe a tragedy of his, 
entitled Gifippus^ has been acted at Drury 
Lane Theatre, amidfl: the moft unbounded 
ovations — Mr. Macready having fuftained the 
principal character. Poor Griffin ! like fo 
many others, his fame came too late. Whilft 
refiding in London, all the intereft that him- 
felf and his friend Banim could command 
was inefficient to get his dramatic produc- 
tions brought upon the ftage. His remains 
lie interred in the cemetery of the convent at 
Cork, belonging to the Brothers of the 
Chriftian Schools. Poor fellow ! lick of 
life, weary through cc hope deferred," and 
bleeding from difappointed love and ambition, 
he almoft yielded to defpair, and as a dernier 
refort^ fought the cloifter as the only, but in- 
effectual anodyne for his foul's terrible unreft. 
Dr. Griffin does not hold the " Brothers " 
altogether free from blame in the matter of 
his death. f I frequently recall to mind, 
though with a painful melancholy of feeling, 
thofe poems of Griffin's, wherein he too truly 
exprefles dark forebodings of his untimely 



* A Play in Five Adts. London : 1842. 

f Vide Life of Gerald Griffin, Efq., by his Brother. 



282 Monaftic Injiitutions. 

fate.* The language of the monologue which 
the author puts into the mouth of Gifippus^ 
when — endeavouring to elude his purfuers — 
he enters a burying-ground and leans over a 
tomb, has been literally fulfilled in himfelf: — 

" Will the dead 

Afford me what the living have denied, 
Reft for my weary limbs, and fhelter? Here 
At leaft I mall find quiet, if not eafe, 
And hoft who do not grudge their entertaining 
Even though the gueft be mifery. Colder hearts 
Than thofe which reft within this fepulchre, 
I've left in all the health of lufty life, 
Informing bofoms harder than its marble, 
Then I will be your gueft, ye filent dead, 
Would I could fay, your felloiv-JIumberer!"^ 

Many brilliant and promifing young per- 
fons, of both fexes, are thus yearly facrificed 
on the altar of this modern Moloch, and are 
fent to rejoin in heaven thofe martyrs that 
have preceded them. 

I have myfelf whilft in the monastery 
fuftained conflicts which I cannot defcribe — 
mental anguim which I fhudder to contem- 
plate — perturbation of foul which baffled 



* Vide Poems, " In the days of my boyhood." " I 
am alone." " Know you not that lovely river," etc. — 
Griffin's Poetical Works. Ed. Parlour Library, 

*fi Act iv. Scene iii. 



"Their pernicious Tendency. 283 

every remedy I thought calculated to pacify 
it. Thefe fevere trials and this mental prof- 
tration and inward agony were, doubtlefs, the 
inevitable confequences of monaftic rigour, 
and the continual warfare which this un- 
natural fyftem wages againft Nature, who 
will not with impunity fuffer an infringement 
of her rights. But my ghoftly father, to 
whom I alone dare venture to reveal them, 
counfelled me to regard my diftrefs of mind, 
difquietude of confcience, and the extreme 
diftafte which I experienced for the profeffion 
of a monk, as the wiles of the enemy to 
enfnare my foul and entice me into the world, 
where my falvation would be jeopardifed, 
and my anticipation of a blifsful futurity 
rendered perhaps abortive. Accordingly, he 
had recourfe to an opiate in order to ad- 
minifter relief to my burdened fpirit. But 
it failed to be efficacious. This was by 
placing me under obligation to read privately, 
in an audible voice, the life of St. Anthony 
of the defert — one of the greateft fanatics 
the world ever produced — feveral times a 
day for weeks together, until all the Angular 
exploits of the hermit, and his repeated 
phyfical combats with nefarious fpirits, had 
become fo imprelTed upon my memory, that 



284 Monaflic Inftitutions. 

I could repeat by rote the life of this faintly 
devotee with the fame facility that I could 
the pages of the Breviary. However, what 
priefts and their quack noftrums could not 
effe£t for me, I, after fome vigorous efforts, 
effedled for myfelf. The Jefuits may eafily 
corrupt and difquiet confciences ; they can- 
not purify nor tranquillife them. Never mall 
I forget the anguifh of foul I endured when 
one day I proftrated myfelf before an image 
of the Madonna, (whofe looks beamed with 
light and love, after the exquifite touches of 
Salvator Rofa,) exclaiming, " O Mary ! I 
never will defert you!" Doubt and fear 
reigned fucceflively over my troubled fpirit, 
and bowed me to the earth. I felt as did the 
aged captive of whom we read, who, having 
been confined for many years in a dungeon 
of the Baftile, when the glorious tidings of 
deliverance was announced in his ears, im- 
plored as the greateft of bleffings, that he 
might be permitted to pafs the remainder of 
his life in captivity. Accuftomed to gloomi- 
nefs and flavery he envied not the children of 
liberty and light. He could not gaze with 
joyfulnefs upon the brilliancy of day, the 
greateft part of whofe exiftence was dreamed 
away amid the blacknefs and darknefs of a 



Their pernicious Tendency. 285 

protracted night. So, when the light of 
reafon burft upon my mind I dreaded its 
power. I would have preferred remaining 
in darknefs rather than fufFer the agonies of 
doubt and difquietude which the fun-beams 
of Truth occafioned. But Truth was 
ftronger than I ; and having overcome in the 
conteft with error, I now bear the palm of 
victory, and thank Heaven for the ordeal 
through which I was enabled to pafs. As 
Archdeacon Hare admirably remarks : — 
" The light mull enter into the darknefs, 
ere the darknefs can know that it is without 
light, and open its heart to defire and em- 
brace it."* 

IV. Monafticifm is pernicious in apolitical 
point of view. 

The interefts of the State are materially and 
permanently injured by the abftraction of the 
fervices and properties of thofe who enter 
the cloifter. Such perfons are loft to the 
country as citizens, and pafs at once from 
the control of the law and the protection of 
the conftitution. It is a fatal and mifchievous 
error to fuppofe that individuals have the 
moral right to direct: their own actions in the 



* Guefles at Truth. 



2$ 6 Monajlic Injlitutions . 

matter of retiring from the world. Such an 
idea is the refult of great ignorance ; and 
when the defire of ferving God better is the 
ground alleged, to ignorance becomes added 
fuperftition. 

The number of monaftic inftitutions in 
England and Wales are confiderably on the 
increafe, as will appear from the following 
authentic ftatement : In 1847, there were 
thirty-four convents and eight monafteries. 
In 1848, there were thirty-eight convents 
and eleven monafteries. In 1851, the con- 
vents for women alone had increafed to fifty- 
three. In 1852, they numbered fixty-two ; 
and in 1853, tne 7 were further augmented 
to feventy-five ; being an addition of twenty- 
two in two years. Well, we cannot be far 
wrong if we allow five more for the paft 
year, — in all eighty. Afluming that each 
convent or monaftery contains twenty in- 
mates # — not by any means a high average — 
it would yield a total of one thoufand fix 
hundred nuns, independently of monaftics 
of the other fex. Now, eftimating that each 



* Mr. T. Chambers estimates the number at thirty. 
Vide Hanfard's Par. Debates, loth of May, 1 85 3. — Infec- 
tion of Nunneries, 



Their pernicious Tendency . 287 

of thefe women brought into the convent in 
the fhape of dowry, fay, £450 — many bring 
ten times this amount — it would yield a 
capital of £720,000; and not a dead or 
inactive capital either; for as quickly as a 
religious dies out, her property becomes im- 
mediately available ; fo that inftead of the 
longevity of a nun being a boon, her prema- 
ture death becomes the fource of pecuniary 
profit. Should fuch eftabliftiments go on 
increafing in the fame ratio as they have 
during the paft few years, the immenfe 
amount of capital that would accumulate 
therein muft be highly detrimental to the 
ftate. According to Hume, the Roman 
court once drew a revenue from this country 
greater than the entire national revenue of 
the crown of England. If monaftic eftab- 
lifliments are quietly fufFered to progrefs ad 
libitum, although the papal court may not 
derive proximate advantages therefrom, cer- 
tainly this country muft fuffer in a monetary 
and commercial point of view, from the 
enormous amount of wealth that is fure to 
become accumulated in fuch places. 

It is a very ferious queftion, whether the 
ftate is juftified in permitting the increafe of 
convents in a free country like England ; or 



288 Monajiic Inflitutions. 

whether permitting them, it mould not ex- 
ercife a fuitable vigilance and control over 
their inmates. Much oppofition was raifed 
both in and out of the Houfe of Commons 
when Mr. Chambers brought in his motion 
for the Infpection of Nunneries ; as if the 
meafure was dictated by anti-catholic feeling 
and religious afperity — motives which that 
gentleman very properly difavowed. But 
Roman catholic countries, ftrange to fay, 
have taken the initiative in this matter, and 
have found it neceffary not only to hold a 
ftrict fupervifion over, but pofitively to limit, 
and occafionally to fupprefs, fuch inftitutes 
as being inimical to the fafety and welfare of 
the various ftates in which they were planted. 
The reformed Leopold, who fucceeded the 
laft of the Medici, made a law,* fuppreffing 
fome religious houfes, and materially reftrict- 
ing others ; which law likewife provided for 
their due infpeclion. It was faid of Leopold 
that he found Tufcany a wildernefs and left 
it a paradife. At all events he was a wife 
and good emperor and ftatefman ; and his 
public acts are well worthy of confideration 
if not commendation. 



* a. d. 1780. 



Their pernicious Tendency. 289 

In Ruffia, no convent can receive an in- 
mate without previoufly addreffing the Synod 
at Mofcow, and forwarding an affidavit of 
the novice, that the life ftie wiflies to adopt 
is of her own free choice. In Pruffia, no girl 
can take the veil without firft undergoing an 
examination by the civil authorities. In 
Bavaria, nuns are not allowed to make other 
than triennial vows ; and a periodical vifita- 
tion of all convents is ftriclly enforced. In 
Auftria, monaftics have the privilege pri- 
vately to addrefs the civil government, and 
at any time they may deem expedient. 
Whilft in many French convents vows are 
only fuffered to be taken temporarily, and the 
maire of the arrondhTement and the authorities 
have power to make a vifitation of them, 
without even giving any notice of their in- 
tention. In Sardinia, fome few months ago, 
a bill for the Suppreffion of Convents was 
brought into the Piedmontefe Chamber.* 
On that occafion, in concluding his fpeech 
Mr. Brofferio faid : — "The minifter tells 
us there are in Sardinia four hundred reli- 
gious houfes. He wiflies to fupprefs, we 



* At the very time we write, the fubjecT: is again being 
difcuffed. 

U 



290 Monajiic Injiitutions. 

will fay, two hundred. I will vote for this 
fuppreflion. If but fifty, I will vote for fup- 
prefling the fifty. If but ten, I will fay ten. 
If he will only get rid of a fingle monk, I 
will fay, away goes the monk ! I will con- 
tent myfelf with that ; but I will wait, having 
faith in the future, and being perfuaded that 
it will bring us better times and better men. 3 ' 

Several years ago the Abbe De La Men- 
nais publifhed a work* in Paris, in which 
he fpeaks of the determination of the French 
government with refpect to religious vows 
and monaftic eftablifhments, and animad- 
verts upon the conftituted authorities for 
refufing to legalize the fame. The ftate 
did not prohibit individuals from taking upon 
themfelves certain religious obligations. Its 
maxim was : " L'etat ne s'en melera pas : 
ce font la des chofes d'un ordre plus eleve 
qui fe pafTeront entre la confcience et Dieu." 
However, it was confidered an acT: of wife 
political policy to put a very confiderable 
reftraint on conventual inftitutions. 

Now, with thefe facts ftaring us in the 
face, why mould it be confidered derogatory 



* De la Religion, connderee dans fes rapports avec 
l'ordre Politique et Civile. 



Their pernicious Tendency. 291 

to the dignity of England, or an infringement 
on the liberty which we enjoy under the 
broad aegis of her free conftitution, for reli- 
gious houfes to be amenable to the laws and 
open to infpedlion ? I can fee no reafon why 
our own Government mould entirely over- 
look the fafety, happinefs, and welfare of 
thofe perfons immured in convents. Indeed, 
fo far from fuch infpe£tion refulting in evil, 
it muft needs be productive of good. If it 
effected no further benefit than to remove 
the prejudices and unfavourable impreffions 
which obtain in fome quarters, refpe£ting 
the government of nunneries, this alone, 
one would think, would be u a confum- 
mation devoutly to be wifhed." We know 
how very eafy it is to defpoil a virgin of 
her fair fame ; and how bufy the tongue of 
calumny oftentimes is ; never more fo than 
when the fubjecSt. of convents comes upon 
the tapis. Now, if thefe places of feclufion 
were open to infpection, it would really ferve 
to difabufe the public mind of certain, perhaps 
prejudicial and unfounded, notions of the 
doings and workings therein, — that is, if they 
are as blamelefs and fpotlefs as they would 
have the world imagine. Some tranfacSHons, 
however, have recently come to light, which 



292 Monajlic Injiitutions. 

rather detra£t from than enhance the cha- 
racter of fuch communities ; but motives of 
delicacy and refpecSr. for eminent families, 
will not allow me to revive painful and 
public difclofures. 

It is a melancholy fa£t, however, that 
many young perfons are cunningly inveigled 
into convents, (as nuns now inherit they 
become obje£ls to be gained,) and are after- 
wards cruelly confined in thefe prifons by 
compulfion. Yet they dare not complain, for 
this would only ferve to enhance their mifery, 
and render their exiftence, already melan- 
choly enough, one dark fcene of uninter- 
rupted gloom. Certain prelates in letters to 
the Times may quote the Council of Trent 
in proof of perfons being anathematifed who 
force young men and women into monafte- 
ries againft their will. It is all perfe£Uy true. 
But it leaves parents and guardians free to 
force or compel that confent, which other- 
wife would be withholden. Were this con- 
fent not neceffary, there would be no need 
for the employment of violence to extort it. 
As it is, however, the confent and content of 
thefe poor creatures very much refemble the 
lamb led into catholic churches on St. Agnes^ 
day, extended on its richly-fringed cufhion, 



Their pernicious Tendency. 293 

its ear and tail bedecked with gaudy ribands, 
bleating to the tones of church mufic, and 
evidently diflatisfied with the petting it re- 
ceives, feeming to the ear of the fatirift to 
cry all the while 

" Alack ! and alas 
What's all this white damafk to daifies and grafs ? " 

Liguori, fo far from denying the fa£r. of 
perfons being forced into thefe dens of feclu- 
fion, devotes one portion of a voluminous 
book to the inftru£tion of fuch malcontents.* 
As to fympathy for fuch, he poflefTes and he 
profefTes none. He obferves : " For my 
part, I cannot pity you more than I could 
pity a perfon who had been tranfported (even 
againft his will) from a place infe£ted with 
peftilence and furrounded by enemies, to a 
healthful country, to be placed there for life 
fecure againft every foe."f He further 
remarks, to the difcontented : " Now that 
you are profefled in a convent, and that it is 
impojjible for you to leave it^ tell me what do 
you wifti to do ? If you have entered religion 



* " What ought a per Jon to do vuho jinds that Jhe has become 
a nun againji her inclinations f" — True Spoufe of Chrift, 
ch. xxiv. 8. 

f Ibid. 8. fee. 3. . 



294 Monajiic Injlitutions . 

againft your inclinations, you muft now re- 
main with cheer fulnefs. If you abandon 
yourfelf to melancholy you lhall lead a life 
of mifery, and will expofe yourfelf to great 
danger of fuffering a hell here and another 
hereafter. You muft then make a virtue of 

necejjity Being afked his opinion 

regarding a perfon who had become a nun 
againft her will, St. Francis de Sales an- 
fwered : c It is true that this child^ if me had 
not been obliged by her parents^ would not 
have left the world ; but this is of little im- 
portance, provided me knows that the force 
employed by her parents is more ufeful to 
her than the permiffion to follow her own 
will.' 55 * What need we of any further 
witnefs ? 

After all how falfe and fatal is that fym- 
pathy which fays, " Leave convents alone, 
and leave people alone, to do juft as they 
like — why heed or intermeddle we r 55 But 
furely principle mould ever take precedence 
of private feeling. The public good muft 
not be facrificed either for the fake of per- 
fonal benefit or gratification. To do fo would 
be contrary to the univerfally recognifed laws 



* True Spoufe of Chrift, 8. § 4. 



Their pernicious Tendency. 295 

of found polity and focial morality. To my 
mind there cannot be a more contemptible, 
loathfome, horrifying fight, than to fee num- 
bers of young men and women fly fociety 
and (hut themfelves up within the barren 
walls of a monaftery, of which the language 
of Byron, in his Lament of Taflb, is but too 
accurately defcriptive — 

" Here laughter is not mirth, nor thought the mind— 
Nor fpeech a language j nor e'en men mankind ! " 

— there to have every noble faculty rot in 
putrid ifolation, and every phyfical grace turn 
to emafculated deformity. As well, and with 
equal propriety, may the moft monftrous 
fuperftitions be imported and fupported in 
our land, and fuicide no longer rank as a 
crime on the Statute Book ! I thought that 
the boafted Freedom of this country had at 
leaft one limitation — that no individual was 
free to be a Jlave. 



FINIS. 




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